| Notes |
- Brian Bóruma mac Cennetig, High King of Ireland was born between 926 and 940 at Kincord, Killaloe, County Clare, Ireland. He was the son of Cennetig mac Lorcain, King of Thomond and Be Binn ingen Aurchada. He married, firstly, Mor. He married, secondly, Echrad. He married, thirdly, Gormflaith, daughter of Murchad MacFinn, King of Leinster. He married Dub Choblaig. He died on 23 April 1014, killed in action.
He gained the title of King Brian Bóruma of Munster in 976. He succeeded to the title of High King Brian Bóruma of Ireland in 1002. He fought in the Battle of Cluantarbh on 23 April 1014, against the Danes. He has an extensive biographical entry in the Dictionary of National Biography.
Dictionary of National Biography
Brian 926-1014, king of Ireland, known in Irish writings as Brian Boroimhe (Cogadh Gaedhel re Gallaibh, Rolls Series, p. 208), Boroma (Tigernachi Annales in Bodleian MS. Rawlinson B 488), most commonly in earlier books as Brian mac Cennedigh (Book of Leinster, facsimile, fol. 309 a; Tigernach, ed. O'Conor, pp. 266, 268), and in English writings as Bryan mac Kennedy and Brian Boru, was a native of the northern part of Munster, and was of the royal descent of Thomond, of the family known as Dal Cais, who claimed the right of alternate succession to the kingship of Cashel, as the chief kingship of Munster is usually called by the Irish writers. His father was Cenneide, son of Lorcan, and Brian, who was born in 926, was the youngest of three sons. The time of Brian's youth was one of continued harrying of Ireland by the Danes, whose hold on the seaports of the country had been steadily increasing since their first invasion in 795, and from Limerick they made many plundering expeditions into the country of the Dal Cais. Brian's elder brother Mathgamhain became head of the tribe, and under him Brian's life as a warrior began; but when Mathgamhain made peace Brian continued the war by expeditions from the mountains of Clare, but was unable to make way against the Danes, and at last, with only a few followers left, had to take refuge with his brother. The war soon began again, and Mathgamhain succeeded in seizing Cashel and the vacant kingship of Munster. The Danes of Limerick with many native Irish allies marched against the king of Cashel and his brother, and were defeated at Sulcoit in Tipperary. This battle, fought about 968, was the first of Brian's victories over the Danes, and was followed by the sack of Danish Limerick. In 976 a conspiracy of rival chiefs in Munster led to the murder of Mathgamhain, and Brian became chief of the Dal Cais with an abundant inheritance of wars. Succession to the kingship of Cashel was alternate between the Dal Cais and the Eoghanacht, that is between the tribes north of the plain in the middle of which the rock of Cashel rises and those south of it. Maelmuadh, Mathgamhain's murderer, was the next heir of the Eoghanacht, and became king after the murder. Brian defeated and slew him in a pitched battle at Belach Lechta, in the north of the present county Cork, in 978, and thus himself became king of Cashel. He had, however, much hard fighting before he was able to obtain hostages, in proof of submission, from all the tribes of Munster. Constant warfare made the Dal Cais more and more formidable, and having obtained recognition throughout Munster, Brian first led them against Gillapatric, king of Ossory, and then marching into Leinster was, in 984, acknowledged as king by its chiefs. His successes had evidently determined him to extend his sway over as much of Ireland as he could.
Brian sailed up the Shannon from his stronghold at Killaloe, and with varying success ravaged Meath, Connaught, and Breifne, and at length entered into an alliance with Maelsechlainn mac Domhnaill, chief king of Ireland. The Leinstermen with the Danes of Dublin rose against Brian in the year 1000, and, with the help of the king of Ireland, he defeated them with great slaughter at Glenmama in Wicklow, and immediately after marched into Dublin. Sitric the Danish king submitted to Brian, who took a Danish wife and gave an Irish one to Sitric. He now thought himself powerful enough to end his alliance with Maelsechlainn, and sent a body of Danes into Meath towards Tara. Tara had long been an uninhabited green mound, as it is at this day, and its possession was only important from the fact that it was associated with the name of sovereignty and with the actual possession of the rich pastures by which it is surrounded. Maelsechlainn defeated the first force sent against him, but Brian advanced at the head of an army of Munstermen, Leinstermen, Ossorymen, and Danes, and Maelsechlainn retired to his stronghold of Dun na Sciath on Loch Ennell, and sent for help to his natural allies, Aedh, king of Ailech, and Eochaidh, king of Uladh, and to Cathal, king of Connaught; but all in vain, and he was obliged to offer hostages to Brian. Thus, in the eyes of the Irish, Brian became chief king of Ireland, and the Clonmacnois historian, Tigernach, has at the end of the year 1001 the entry Brian Borama regnat (Bodleian MS. Rawlinson B 488, fol. 15 b, col. ii. line 31). He next made war on the west, received submission from the Connaughtmen, and was thus actual lord of Ireland from the Fews mountains in Armagh southwards. The men of western and central Ulster under the king of Ailech, and those of Dalriada and Dalnaraide under the king of Uladh, still resisted him, but they were also at war with one another, and in 1004 met in battle at Craebh Tulcha and were both slain. Brian at once marched through Meath to Armagh, where he made an offering of gold upon the altar of the great church and acknowledged the ecclesiastical supremacy of Armagh in the only charter of his, the original of which has survived to our day. The charter is in the handwriting of Maolsuthain, Brian's confessor, and is on fol. 16 b of the Book of Armagh. The book itself, written on vellum about 807 by Ferdomnach, contains the gospels, a life of St. Patrick, and other compositions, some in Latin and some in Irish, and in 1004 was already considered one of the chief treasures of Armagh. Its subsequent history has been carefully traced, and it is now preserved in the library of Trinity College, Dublin. On the back of the sixteenth leaf of the Book of Armagh is part of the life of St. Patrick with an account of grants of land in Meath made to him and to his disciples and their successors by Fedelmid mac Loiguire, king of Ireland. The writing is in two columns, and at the foot of the second the original scribe had left a blank, in which the charter of Brian was appropriately written. Maolsuthain wrote in Latin, translating his own name into Calvus Perennis, and Cashel into Maceria. St. Patrick, says the charter, when going to heaven, ordained that the entire produce of his labour as well as of baptism, and decisions as of alms, was to be delivered to the apostolic city, which in the Scotic tongue is called Arddmacha. Thus I have found it in the records of the Scots. This is my writing, namely Calvus Perennis, in the presence of Brian, imperator of the Scots, and what I have written he decreed for all the kings of Maceria. This grant, besides its intrinsic interest, is of importance as confirming the accuracy of the early chronicles which mention Brian's visit to Armagh. He received hostages from all the chief tribes of the north except the Cinel Conaill, who remained unconquered in the fastnesses of Kilmacrenan and the Rosses. His next action was to make a circuit of Ireland demanding hostages of all the territories through which he passed. This was probably suggested by a similar act of Muircheartach na gcochall gcroicionn, king of Ailech, who in 941 marched from the north through Munster taking hostages to secure his own succession to the chief kingship of Ireland.
The poem which Cormacan mac Maolbrighde, Muircheartach's bard, composed in honour of his exploit mentions (ed. O'Donovan, line 129) that the king of Ailech on his expedition passed a night at Cenn Coradh, Brian's home, and even if Brian did not witness the progress of the northern king, its memory must have been fresh in Munster in his youth. Cenn Coradh was near Killaloe, within the limits of the present town, and starting thence Brian marched up the right bank of the Shannon and northwards as far as the Curlew mountains, which he crossed and descended to the plain of the river Sligech, which falls into Sligo Bay, and then marched by the sea to the river Drobhais, then as now the boundary of Ulster. Brian forded it and followed the ancient road into the north over the ford of Easruadh, the present salmon leap on the river between Loch Erne and Ballyshannon. From this he marched to the gap called Bearnas mor, probably keeping to the coast. He passed unattacked through the long and desolate defile, and beyond it emerged into Tir Eoghain, which he crossed, and entered Dalriada by the ford of the Ban at Feartas Camsa, near the present Macosquin. He passed on into Darnaraidhe and ended his circuit at Belach Duin, a place in Meath, three miles north of Kells.
He was thus, by right of his sword and admission of all her chiefs, Ardrigh na Erenn, chief king of Ireland, and so remained till his death. After so much war there was an interval of peace. Brian is said by the historians of his own part of the country to have built the church of Killaloe and that of Inis Cealtra, and the round tower of Tomgraney; but the ruins on the island in Loch Derg, and the ancient stone-roofed church of Killaloe, are later than the buildings erected by him. He himself lived in the Dun of Cenn Coradh, probably in a house resembling the dwellings of the peasantry of the present day, with an earthen floor, thatched roof, and a hearth big enough to boil a huge cauldron, whence the king and his guests drew out lumps of meat, which they washed down with draughts of the beer which, tradition says, they had learnt to brew from their Danish friends, and of the more ancient liquor of the country made from honey. Senachies, historians who knew how to turn history into poetry, and who like poets often excelled in fiction, were the men of letters of Brian's court. They feasted with the king and his warriors, and sang the glories of the Dal Cais and the great deeds of Brian, son of Cenneide, in strains some of which have come down to our own times. It was perhaps one of these who first gave Brian the name by which in modern times he has become the best known of all the kings of Ireland; few Englishmen can, indeed, name any other. Borama (Book of Leinster, facs. 294 b) na boromi (Leabhar na Huidri, facs. 118 b), a word cognate with ½ÿµ (Stokes, Revue Celtique, May 1885, p. 370), is an Irish word for a tribute, resembling the indemnity of modern warfare, as distinguished from cáin and cÃs, or rightful dues and taxes payable according to fixed usage. Thus, in the Annals of Ulster under 998 a.d.: Indred loch necach la haedh mac domhnaill co tuc boroma mor as (Plundering of Loch Neagh by Aedh mac Domhnaill, he took a boroma thence); and a.d. 1008: Creach la Flaithbertach ua Neill co firu Breagh co tuc boromamor (A foray by Flaithbertach O'Neill on the men of Bregia, and he took a great boroma). Eric has part of the same meaning, and the statement of the most famous borama begins: Isà seo imorro innéraic, this is, moreover, the eric (Book of Leinster, facs. 295 b, line 20). This was an annual tribute which the Leinstermen had in early times been forced to pay to the kings of Tara. It consisted, according to the Book of Leinster, of 15,000 cows, 15,000 pigs, 15,000 linen cloths, 15,000 silver chains, 15,000 wethers, 15,000 copper cauldrons, 1 huge copper cauldron capable of holding 12 pigs and 12 lambs, 30 white cows with red ears, with calves of the same colour and trappings, and its payment was often refused and led to endless wars. It has often been supposed that Brian received his cognomen because he put an end to this tribute by subduing the king of Tara; but there is no passage in early historians justifying this statement. As Brian is called Boroma by Tigernach O'Braoin, a writer who lived in the middle of the eleventh century (the existing fragmentary manuscript of his history being of about the year 1150), it is clear that the title was a real one, given him during his life. But Brian was throughout life a taker and not a refuser of tributes. No one who has read the Irish chronicles could think it likely that a hero of the Dal Cais would care to be celebrated as a reliever of the burdens of the Leinstermen, first his enemies, and then his subjects. Brian was called Boroimhe or Brian of the Tribute, because of the tribute which he had levied throughout Ireland, and which brought plenty to the Dal Cais, but was taken from the Leinstermen, the Connaughtmen, the men of Meath, and of Ulster, with as firm a hand as ever the most famous borama was seized from the descendants of Eochu mac Echach by the kings of Tara
In 1013 fighting began again between the Danes of Dublin, who found allies in Ossory and Leinster and Maelsechlainn. The king of Meath was worsted and sent to ask help from Brian, who ravaged Ossory and Leinster and joined Maelsechlainn at Kilmainham near Dublin, where some remains of an old earthwork at Garden Hill have been conjectured to mark their encampment. They besieged the Danes from 9 Sept. till Christmas, but then had to raise the siege. In the spring Brian again marched against the Danes, who, besides allies from Leinster, had obtained help from Scandinavia. He wasted Leinster and marched to the north side of Dublin. On Good Friday, 23 April 1014, at Cluantarbh, on the north side of Dublin Bay, a decisive battle was fought, in which the Danes were routed with great slaughter. Brian's sons, Murchadh and Donchadh, and his grandson led the Irish, and Brian himself, too old for active fighting, knelt in his tent, repeating psalms and prayers. Here he was slain by Brodar, a Danish jarl.
The victory was the most important the Irish had ever won over the Danes, and the Danes were never after powerful in Ireland beyond the walls of their boroughs. The battle was celebrated in poetic accounts full of dramatic details, both by the Irish and the Northmen, sometimes natural as in the saga where a fugitive stops to fasten his shoe: ‘Why,’ says a pursuing Irishman, ‘do you delay?’ ‘I live,’ answers the fugitive, ‘away in Iceland, and it is too late to go home tonight.’ Or sometimes supernatural, as in the Irish tale, where Aibhell of Craig Liath, the bensidh of the Dal Cais, warns Brian the night before the battle of his approaching death. The Irish chronicler (Cogadh G. re G.) describes the battle in alliterative prose, sometimes breaking into verse, as does the English chronicler in celebrating Brunanburh. In the case of Cluan Tarbh, as probably in that of Brunanburh, it was the nearness and actual living fame of the event that made the historian become a poet, and not distance of time that caused history to become inextricably blended with romance. Brian was carried to Armagh and there buried. His tomb is forgotten, and his power died with him. Two sons, Tadhg and Donnchadh, survived him, while his son Murchadh and his grandson Toirdelbhach were slain in the battle. His clansmen returned to Cenn Coradh, and Maelsechlainn mac Domhnaill again reigned as chief king of Ireland, and so continued till his death. Brian had raised the power of the Munstermen to a pitch it had never reached before, and his fifty years of war wore out the Danish strength; but his efforts to obtain supremacy in Ireland diminished the force of hereditary right throughout the country, and suggested to willing chiefs that submission should only be yielded to him who could exact it. The last chief king of Ireland of the ancient line was the Maelsechlainn whom Brian had for a time dispossessed, and when he died in 1022 no king of Tara was ever after able to enforce even the slight general control exercised in former times, and the king James, who united the rule of England and Scotland, was the next real king of the whole of Ireland. The fame of Brian Boroimhe has been spread throughout Ireland by Dr. Geoffrey Keating, whose interesting ‘Forus feasa air Eirinn’ was the most popular of all Irish histories from its appearance in the seventeenth century till the time when Irish literature ceased to be read at all in the country about the year of the famine. The book was written in Munster, and therefore praises the most famous of her heroes. In later days still, from the time of Daniel O'Connell downwards, the renown of Brian has been spread more and more. ‘For it was he that released the men of Erin and its women from the bondage and iniquity of the foreigners and the pirates. It was he that gained five-and-twenty battles over the foreigners, and who killed and banished them as we have already said.’ These words of the old Munster chronicler, who wrote all the praise he could of the popular hero of the south, represent the spirit in which Brian has been extolled in modern times. He has been often praised in books and speeches as an enlightened patriot, a compeer of King Alfred and of Washington. In the chronicles of his own times this is not his aspect; he there appears as a strong man and a hardy warrior, skilful in battle and in plotting, proud of his ancestors and of his tribe, and determined that the Dal Cais should be the greatest tribe in Ireland, the tribe with the most cattle and the most tribute. Such was Brian, son of Cenneide, for whom no fitter title could be found than that of Boroimhe, of the tribute, the main object of so many of his battles.
Sources:
Original Charter in Book of Armagh, 16 b, reproduced in facs. in National Manuscripts of Ireland, vol. i.; date of the charter 1004. Tigernachi Annales;
Photograph of Bodleian MS. Rawlinson B 488; and in O'Conor's Rerum Hibernicarum Scriptores, vol. i.;
Tigernach wrote before 1088, manuscript in Bodleian of about 1150.
Cogadh Gaedhil re Gallaibh, The War of the Irish with the Danes, Rolls Series, and Book of Leinster facsimile fol. 309.
The Book of Leinster is a twelfth-century manuscript; only a fragment of the work remains in it, the rest of the Rolls text being from late manuscripts, the general accuracy of which is confirmed by independent evidence. Annala Rioghachta Eirionn, the general summary of Irish chronicles, compiled by the O'Clerys and their associates in the seventeenth century, and commonly known as the Annals of the Four Masters, printed in Dublin, ed. O'Donovan, 1851, vol. ii.;
Reeves's Ancient Churches of Armagh, 8vo, Lusk, 1860, and Memoir of the Book of Armagh, Lusk, 1861, and Antiquities of Down, Connor, and Dromore, Dublin, 1854;
O'Donovan's Circuit of Muirchertach mac Neill, Irish Archæological Society, 1841;
Hardiman's Irish Minstrelsy, London, 1831, ii. 360-71;
Johnstone's Antiquitates Celto-Scandicæ, Hafn. 1783;
Thormodus Torfæus, Historia rerum Norvicarum, 1711, &c., Hafn.;
Dasent's Burnt Njal, 1861.
Contributor: N. M. [Norman Moore]
Published: 1885
Brian Bóruma mac Cennétig (c. 941-23 April 1014) (English: Brian Boru, Middle Irish: Brian Bóruma, Irish: Brian Bóroimhe), was an Irish king who ended the domination of the High Kingship of Ireland by the Uà Néill. Building on the achievements of his father, Cennétig mac Lorcain, and especially his elder brother, Mathgamain, Brian first made himself King of Munster, then subjugated Leinster, making himself ruler of the south of Ireland. He is the founder of the O'Brien dynasty.
With a population of under 500,000 people, Ireland had over 150 kings, with greater or lesser domains. The Uà Néill king Máel Sechnaill mac Domnaill, abandoned by his northern kinsmen of the Cenél nEógain and Cenél Conaill, acknowledged Brian as High King at Athlone in 1002. In the decade that followed, Brian campaigned against the northern Uà Néill, who refused to accept his claims, against Leinster, where resistance was frequent, and against the Norse Gaelic Kingdom of Dublin. Brian's hard-won authority was seriously challenged in 1013 when his ally Máel Sechnaill was attacked by the Cenél nEógain king Flaithbertach Ua Néill, with the Ulstermen as his allies. This was followed by further attacks on Máel Sechnaill by the Dubliners under their king Sihtric Silkbeard and the Leinstermen led by Máel Mórda mac Murchada. Brian campaigned against these enemies in 1013. In 1014, Brian's armies confronted the armies of Leinster and Dublin at Clontarf near Dublin on Good Friday. The resulting Battle of Clontarf was a bloody affair, with Brian, his son Murchad, and Máel Mórda among those killed. The list of the noble dead in the Annals of Ulster includes Irish kings, Norse Gaels, Scotsmen, and Scandinavians. The immediate beneficiary of the slaughter was Máel Sechnaill who resumed his interrupted reign.
The court of Brian's great-grandson Muirchertach Ua Briain produced the Cogadh Gaedhel re Gallaibh, a work of near hagiography. The Norse Gaels and Scandinavians too produced works magnifying Brian, among these Njal's Saga, the Orkneyinga Saga, and the now-lost Brian's Saga. Brian's war against Máel Mórda and Sihtric was to be inextricably connected with his complicated marital relations, in particular his marriage to Gormlaith, Máel Mórda's sister and Sihtric's mother, who had been in turn the wife of AmlaÃb Cuarán, king of Dublin and York, then of Máel Sechnaill, and finally of Brian.
A succinct summation of Brian is by David B. Beougher, who remarks
"Contrary to the popular perception of Brian as the liberator of Ireland from foreign dominance, he purposely used outsiders to expand his authority. Brian “Boru†combined Irish tradition with innovation to become the most successful Irish king of his time."
Biography
Early life and background
Many Irish annals state that Brian was in his 88th year when he fell in the Battle of Clontarf in 1014. If true, this would mean that he was born as early as 926 or 927. Other birth dates given in retrospect are 923 or 942.
He was one of the 12 sons of Cennétig mac Lorcáin (d. 951), king of Dál Cais and king of Tuadmumu (Thomond), modern County Clare, then a sub-kingdom in the north of Munster). Cennétig was described as rÃgdamna Caisil, meaning that he was either heir or candidate ("king material") to the kingship of Cashel or Munster,[4] although this might be a later interpolation. Brian's mother was Bé Binn inion Urchadh, daughter of Urchadh mac Murchadh (d. 945), king of Maigh Seóla in west Connacht. That they belonged to the Uà Briúin Seóla may explain why he received the name Brian, which was rare among the Dál Cais.
Brian was born at Kincora, Killaloe, a town in the region of Tuadmumu (Thomond). Brian's posthumous cognomen "Bóruma" (anglicised as Boru) may have referred to "Béal Bóruma", a fort north of Killaloe (Co Clare) in Thomond, where the Dál Cais held sway. Another explanation, though possibly a late (re-)interpretation, is that the nickname represented Old Irish bóruma "of the cattle tribute", referring to his capacity as a powerful overlord.
When their father died, the kingship of Tuadmumu passed to Brian's older brother, Mathgamain, and, when Mathgamain was killed in 976, Brian replaced him. Subsequently he became the King of the entire kingdom of Munster.
Situation of his tribe, the Dál gCais
Brian belonged to the Dál gCais (or Dalcassians), a newly styled kin group of ultimately Déisi origin who occupied a territory north of the Shannon Estuary, which today would incorporate a substantial part of County Clare and then formed the core of the new kingdom of Thomond. In earlier times their ancestors had controlled some lands in today's County Limerick as well, but these had been overrun by the Uà Fidgenti from the 9th century and the invading Norse in the 10th.
The River Shannon served as an easy route by which raids could be made against the provinces of Connacht and Meath. Both Brian's father, Cennétig mac Lorcáin and his older brother Mathgamain conducted river-borne raids, in which the young Brian would undoubtedly have participated. This was probably the root of his appreciation for naval forces in his later career. Thus an important influence upon the Dalcassians was the presence of the Hiberno-Norse city of Limerick on an isthmus around which the Shannon River winds (known today as King's Island or the Island Field). The Norse had made many a raid themselves from the Shannon, and the Dalcassians likely benefited from some interaction with them, from which they would have been exposed to innovations such as superior weapons and ship design, all factors that may have contributed to their growing power.
Reign of his brother, Mathgamain
In 964, Brian's older brother, Mathgamain, claimed control over the entire province of Munster by capturing the Rock of Cashel, capital of the ancient Eóganachta, the hereditary overlords or High Kings of Munster, but who in dynastic strife and with multiple assassinations had weakened themselves to the point they were now impotent. Earlier attacks from both the Uà Néill and Vikings were factors. This situation allowed the illegitimate (from the Eóganacht perspective) but militarized Dál Cais to attempt to seize the provincial kingship. However, Mathgamain was never fully recognized and was opposed throughout his career in the 960s and 970s by Máel Muad mac Brain, a semi-outsider from the Cashel perspective but still a legitimate Eóganacht claimant from far south Munster. In addition to Máel Muad, the Norse king Ivar of Limerick was a threat and may have been attempting to establish some overlordship in the province or a region of it himself, with the Cogad Gaedel re Gallaib even asserting he actually achieved this until routed by Mathgamain in the celebrated Battle of Sulcoit in 967. This victory was not decisive however and eventually there grew up a brief alliance of sorts between Mathgamain, Máel Muad and others to drive the Norse "soldiers" or "officials" out of Munster and destroy their Limerick fortress in 972.[7] But the two Gaelic claimants were soon back to fighting and the fortuitous capture of Mathgamain in 976 by Donnubán mac Cathail allowed him to be effortlessly dispatched or murdered by Máel Muad, who would now rule as king of Cashel for two years.
But the Dál Cais remained a powerful force and Brian quickly proved to be as fine a commander of armies as his brother. After first dispatching the already much weakened Ivar in 977, he challenged Máel Muad in 978 and defeated him in the fateful Battle of Belach Lechta, after which all the Eóganachta were no longer viable at the provincial level and Brian and the Dál Cais now enjoyed the overlordship, although not the traditional kingship of the province, which was based on lineage. Either soon before or soon after his victory over Máel Muad, Brian routed Donnubán and the remainder of the Norse army in the Battle of Cathair Cuan, there probably slaying the last of Ivar's sons and successor Aralt. He then allowed some of the Norse to remain in their settlement, but they were wealthy and now central to trade in the region, with a fleet of great value.
Cian, the son of his brother Mathgamain's sworn enemy Máel Muad, later became a faithful ally of Brian and served under him in a number of campaigns.
Extending authority
Having established unchallenged rule over his home Province of Munster, Brian turned to extending his authority over the neighboring provinces of Leinster to the east and Connacht to the north. By doing so, he came into conflict with High King Máel Sechnaill mac Domnaill whose power base was the Province of Meath. For the next fifteen years, from 982 to 997, High King Máel Sechnaill repeatedly led armies into Leinster and Munster, while Brian, like his father and brother before him, led his naval forces up the Shannon to attack Connacht and Meath on either side of the river. He suffered quite a few reverses in this struggle, but appears to have learned from his setbacks. He developed a military strategy that would serve him well throughout his career: the coordinated use of forces on both land and water, including on rivers and along Ireland's coast. Brian's naval forces, which included contingents supplied by the Hiberno-Norse cities that he brought under his control, provided both indirect and direct support for his forces on land. Indirect support involved a fleet making a diversionary attack on an enemy in a location far away from where Brian planned to strike with his army. Direct support involved naval forces acting as one arm in a strategic pincer, the army forming the other arm.
In 996 Brian finally managed to control the province of Leinster, which may have been what led Máel Sechnaill to reach a compromise with him in the following year. By recognising Brian's authority over Leth Moga, that is, the Southern Half, which included the Provinces of Munster and Leinster (and the Hiberno-Norse cities within them), Máel Sechnaill was simply accepting the reality that confronted him and retained control over Leth Cuinn, that is, the Northern Half, which consisted of the Provinces of Meath, Connacht, and Ulster.
Precisely because he had submitted to Brian's authority, the King of Leinster was overthrown in 998 and replaced by Máel Morda mac Murchada. Given the circumstances under which Máel Morda had been appointed, it is not surprising that he launched an open rebellion against Brian's authority. In response, Brian assembled the forces of the Province of Munster with the intention of laying siege to the Hiberno-Norse city of Dublin, which was ruled by Máel Morda's ally and cousin, Sigtrygg Silkbeard. Together Máel Morda and Sigtrygg determined to meet Brian's army in battle rather than risk a siege. Thus, in 999, the opposing armies fought the Battle of Glen Mama. The Irish annals all agree that this was a particularly fierce and bloody engagement, although claims that it lasted from morning until midnight, or that the combined Leinster-Dublin force lost 4,000 killed are open to question. In any case, Brian followed up his victory, as he and his brother had in the aftermath of the Battle of Sulcoit thirty-two years before, by capturing and sacking the enemy's city. Once again, however, Brian opted for reconciliation; he requested Sigtrygg to return and resume his position as ruler of Dublin, giving Sigtrygg the hand of one of his daughters in marriage, just as he had with the Eoganacht King, Cian. It may have been on this occasion that Brian married Sigtrygg's mother and Máel Morda's sister Gormflaith, the former wife of Máel Sechnaill.
The struggle for Ireland
Brian made it clear that his ambitions had not been satisfied by the compromise of 997 when, in the year 1000, he led a combined Munster-Leinster-Dublin army in an attack on High King Máel Sechnaill mac Domnaill's home province of Meath. The struggle over who would control all of Ireland was renewed. Máel Sechnaill's most important ally was the King of Connacht, Cathal mac Conchobar mac Taidg (O'Connor), but this presented a number of problems. The Provinces of Meath and Connacht were separated by the Shannon River, which served as both a route by which Brian's naval forces could attack the shores of either province and as a barrier to the two rulers providing mutual support for each other. Máel Sechnaill came up with an ingenious solution; two bridges would be erected across the Shannon. These bridges would serve as both obstacles preventing Brian's fleet from traveling up the Shannon and as a means by which the armies of the Provinces of Meath and Connacht could cross over into each other's kingdoms.
The Annals state that, in the year 1002, Máel Sechnaill surrendered his title to Brian, although they do not say anything about how or why this came about. The Cogadh Gaedhil re Gallaibh provides a story in which Brian challenges High King Máel Sechnaill to a battle at the Hill of Tara in the province of Meath, but the High King requests a month long truce so that he can mobilise his forces, which Brian grants him. But Máel Sechnaill fails to rally the regional rulers who are nominally his subordinates by the time the deadline arrives, and he is forced to surrender his title to Brian. This explanation is hardly credible, given Brian's style of engaging in war; if he had found his opponent at a disadvantage he would certainly have taken full advantage of it rather than allowing his enemy the time to even the odds. Conversely, it is hard to believe, given the length and intensity of the struggle between Máel Sechnaill and Brian, that the High King would surrender his title without a fight.
Where that fight may have occurred and what the particular circumstances were surrounding it we may never know. What is certain is that in 1002 Brian became the new High King of Ireland.
Unlike some who had previously held the title, Brian intended to be High King in more than name only. To accomplish this he needed to impose his will upon the regional rulers of the only province that did not already recognise his authority, Ulster. Ulster's geography presented a formidable challenge; there were three main routes by which an invading army could enter the province, and all three favored the defenders. Brian first had to find a means of getting through or around these defensive 'choke points', and then he had to subdue the fiercely independent regional Kings of Ulster. It took Brian ten years of campaigning to achieve his goal which, considering he could and did call on all of the military forces of the rest of Ireland, indicates how formidable the Kings of Ulster were. Once again, it was his coordinated use of forces on land and at sea that allowed him to triumph; while the rulers of Ulster could bring the advance of Brian's army to a halt, they could not prevent his fleet from attacking the shores of their kingdoms. But gaining entry to the Province of Ulster brought him only halfway to his goal. Brian systematically defeated each of the regional rulers who defied him, forcing them to recognise him as their overlord.
First High King of the Irish
It was during this process that Brian pursued an alternate means of consolidating his control, not merely over the Province of Ulster, but over Ireland as a whole. In contrast to its structure elsewhere, the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland was centered, not around the bishops of diocese and archbishops of archdiocese, but rather around monasteries headed by powerful abbots who were members of the royal dynasties of the lands in which their monasteries resided. Among the most important monasteries was Armagh, located in the Province of Ulster. Brian's advisor, Maelsuthain O'Carroll, documented in the 'Book of Armagh' that, in the year 1005, Brian donated twenty-two ounces of gold to the monastery and declared that Armagh was the religious capital of Ireland to which all other monasteries should send the funds they collected. This was a clever move, for the supremacy of the monastery of Armagh would last only so long as Brian remained the High King. Therefore, it was in the interest of Armagh to support Brian with all their wealth and power. It is interesting that Brian is not referred to in the passage from the 'Book of Armagh' as the 'Ard Ri' -that is, High-King- but rather he is declared "Imperator Scottorum," or "Emperor of the Irish" ("Scottorum" then being the common Late Latin term for the Irish: Ireland was usually referred to in Latin as "Scotia Major" while Scotland was referred to as "Scotia Minor").
Though it is only speculation, it has been suggested that Brian and the Church in Ireland were together seeking to establish a new form of kingship in Ireland, one that was modelled after the kingships of England and France, in which there were no lesser ranks of regional Kings - simply one King who had (or sought to have) power over all in a unitary state. In any case, whether as High King or Emperor, by 1011 all of the regional rulers in Ireland acknowledged Brian's authority. No sooner had this been achieved than it was lost again.
Máel Mórda mac Murchada of Leinster had only accepted Brian's authority grudgingly and in 1012 rose in rebellion. The Cogadh Gaedhil re Gallaibh relates a story in which one of Brian's sons insults Máel Morda, which leads him to declare his independence from Brian's authority. Whatever the actual reason was, Máel Morda sought allies with which to defy the High-King. He found one in a regional ruler in Ulster who had only recently submitted to Brian. Together they attacked the Province of Meath, where the former High King Máel Sechnaill sought Brian's help to defend his Kingdom. In 1013 Brian led a force from his own Province of Munster and from southern Connacht into Leinster; a detachment under his son, Murchad, ravaged the southern half of the Province of Leinster for three months. The forces under Murchad and Brian were reunited on 9 September outside the walls of Dublin. The city was blockaded, but it was the High King's army that ran out of supplies first, so that Brian was forced to abandon the siege and return to Munster around the time of Christmas.
Máel Morda may have hoped that by defying Brian, he could enlist the aid of all the other regional rulers Brian had forced to submit to him. If so, he must have been sorely disappointed; while the entire Province of Ulster and most of the Province of Connacht failed to provide the High King with troops, they did not, with the exception of a single ruler in Ulster, provide support for Máel Morda either. His inability to obtain troops from any rulers in Ireland, along with his awareness that he would need them when the High King returned in 1014, may explain why Máel Morda sought to obtain troops from rulers outside of Ireland. He instructed his subordinate and cousin, Sigtrygg, the ruler of Dublin, to travel overseas to enlist aid.
Sigtrygg sailed to Orkney, and on his return stopped at the Isle of Man. These islands had been seized by the Vikings long before and the Hiberno-Norse had close ties with Orkney and the Isle of Man. There was even a precedent for employing Norsemen from the isles; they had been used by Sigtrygg's father, AmlaÃb Cuarán, in 980, and by Sigtrygg himself in 990. Their incentive was loot, not land. Contrary to the assertions made in the Cogadh Gaedhil re Gallaibh, this was not an attempt by the Vikings to reconquer Ireland. All of the Norsemen, both the Norse-Gaels of Dublin and the Norsemen from the Isles, were in the service of Máel Morda. It should be remembered that the High King had 'Vikings' in his army as well; mainly the Hiberno-Norse of Limerick (and probably those of Waterford, Wexford, and Cork as well), but, according to some sources, a rival gang of Norse mercenaries from the Isle of Man. Essentially this could be characterised as an Irish civil war in which foreigners participated as minor players.
Along with whatever troops he obtained from abroad, the forces that Brian mustered included the troops of his home Province of Munster, those of Southern Connacht, and the men of the Province of Meath, the latter commanded by his old rival Máel Sechnaill mac Domnaill. He may have outnumbered Máel Morda's army, since Brian felt secure enough to dispatch a mounted detachment under the command of his youngest son, Donnchad, to raid southern Leinster, presumably hoping to force Máel Morda to release his contingents from there to return to defend their homes. Unfortunately for the High King, if he had had a superiority in numbers it was soon lost. A disagreement with the King of Meath resulted in Máel Sechnaill withdrawing his support (Brian sent a messenger to find Donnchad and ask him to return with his detachment, but the call for help came too late). To compound his problems, the Norse contingents, led by Sigurd Hlodvirsson, Earl of Orkney and Brodir of the Isle of Man, arrived on Palm Sunday, 18 April. The battle would occur five days later, on Good Friday.
The fighting took place just north of the city of Dublin, at Clontarf (now a prosperous suburb). It may well be that the two sides were evenly matched, as all of the accounts state that the Battle of Clontarf lasted all day. Although this may be an exaggeration, it does suggest that it was a long, drawn-out fight.
There are many legends concerning how Brian was killed, from dying in a heroic man-to-man combat to being killed by the fleeing Viking mercenary Brodir while praying in his tent at Clontarf.[10] He is said to be buried in the grounds of St. Patrick's Cathedral in the city of Armagh. Legend dictates he is buried at the north end of the church.
Historical view
The popular image of Brian-the ruler who managed to unify the regional leaders of Ireland so as to free the land from a 'Danish' (Viking) occupation-originates from the powerful influence of a work of 12th century propaganda, Cogadh Gaedhil re Gallaibh (The War of the Irish with the Foreigners) in which Brian takes the leading role. This work is thought to have been commissioned by Brian's great-grandson, Muirchertach Ua Briain, as a means of justifying the Ua Briain claim to the High-Kingship, a title upon which the UÃ Neill had had a near-monopoly.
The influence of this work, on both scholarly and popular authors, cannot be exaggerated. Until the 1970s most scholarly writing concerning the Vikings' activities in Ireland, as well as the career of Brian Boru, accepted the claims of Cogadh Gaedhil re Gallaibh at face value.
Brian did not free Ireland from a Norse (Viking) occupation, simply because it was never conquered by the Vikings. In the last decade of the 8th century, Norse raiders began attacking targets in Ireland and, beginning in the mid-9th century, these raiders established the fortified camps that later grew into Ireland's first cities: Dublin, Limerick, Waterford, Wexford, and Cork. Within only a few generations, the Norse citizens of these cities had converted to Christianity, intermarried with the Irish, and often adopted the Irish language, dress and customs, thus becoming what historians refer to as the 'Hiberno-Norse'. Such Hiberno-Norse cities were fully integrated into the political scene in Ireland long before the birth of Brian. They often suffered attacks from Irish rulers, and made alliances with others. Rather than conquering Ireland, the Vikings, who initially attacked and subsequently settled in Ireland, were, in fact, assimilated by the Irish.
Wives and children
Brian's first wife was Mór, daughter of the king of Uà Fiachrach Aidne of Connacht. She is said to have been the mother of his sons Murchad, Conchobar and Flann. Later genealogies claimed that these sons left no descendants, although in fact Murchad's son Tadc is recorded as being killed at Clontarf along with his father and grandfather.
Echrad daughter of the king of Uà Ãeda Odba, an obscure branch of the southern Uà Néill, was the mother of Tadc, whose son Toirdelbach and grandson Muirchertach rivalled Brian in power and fame.
Brian's most famous marriage was with Gormflaith, sister of Máel Mórda of Leinster. Donnchad, who had his half-brother Tadc killed in 1023 and ruled Munster for forty years thereafter, was the result of this union.
Brian had a sixth son, Domnall. Although he predeceased his father, Domnall apparently had at least one surviving child, a son whose name is not recorded. Domnall may perhaps have been the son of Brian's fourth known wife, Dub Choblaig, who died in 1009. She was a daughter of King Cathal mac Conchobar mac Taidg of Connacht.
Brian had at least three daughters but their mothers are not recorded. Sadb, whose death in 1048 is recorded by the Annals of Innisfallen, was married to Cian, son of Máel Muad mac Brian. Bé Binn was married to the northern Uà Néill king Flaithbertach Ua Néill. A third daughter, Sláni, was married to Brian's stepson Sitric of Dublin.
According to Njal's Saga, he had a foster-son named Kerthialfad.
Cultural heritage
The descendants of Brian were known as the Ui Briain (O'Brien) clan, hence the surnames Ó Briain, O'Brien, O'Brian etc. "O" was originally Ó which in turn came from Ua, which means "grandson", or "descendant" (of a named person). The prefix is often anglicised to O', using an apostrophe instead of the Irish sÃneadh fada: "´". The O'Briens subsequently ranked as one of the chief dynastic families of the country.
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926 - 1014 (~ 88 years)
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