Kingship and Reform – Emerald Archives

Dateline

The surviving Irish annals make 1106 unusually revealing. They record no single battle or assembly that transformed the whole island, yet they capture several changes whose consequences endured: a contested succession in Mide, the inauguration of a young king in Connacht, and a decisive advance in the reform of the church of Armagh. Taken together, these notices show an Ireland governed through mobile kingship, dynastic alliances, armed followings, ecclesiastical networks and the collection of tribute. They also show the limits of the evidence. Annalists concentrated upon rulers, clerics, violent deaths and exceptional disasters; the routines of farming households, craftspeople and traders generally entered their pages only when disturbed by war, fire or taxation.

Struggle for Mide

The principal conflict firmly assigned to 1106 centred upon Mide. In the previous year Muirchertach Ua Briain, the powerful king of Munster and leading claimant to the high-kingship, had expelled Donnchad Ua Máel Sechlainn from western Mide. Donnchad sought support from Ua Briain’s northern rival, Domnall Mac Lochlainn, king of Ailech and dominant ruler among the Northern Uí Néill. According to the Annals of Ulster and the Annals of Loch Cé, Mac Lochlainn brought an army to assist him. Their forces plundered western Mide, but Donnchad was overtaken while out with a raiding party and killed.

The chronicles disagree over responsibility for Donnchad’s death. The Annals of Inisfallen say that he was slain by his own people; the Four Masters identify Uí Minnegáin, associated with the Uí Mic Uais of Mide; and the Annals of Tigernach attribute his death to Munstermen. These accounts need not be wholly incompatible, for factions within Mide could have acted in concert with Ua Briain’s supporters, but certainty is impossible. What is clear is that Donnchad’s attempt to recover his position failed. His death also demonstrates how intervention by an overking depended upon local allies who might change sides or pursue feuds of their own.

A second alteration followed within the ruling Ua Máel Sechlainn dynasty. Muirchertach Ua Máel Sechlainn was deposed and Murchad son of Domnall took the kingship of Mide. The terse notices do not describe the ceremony or fighting involved. Nevertheless, the change continued the political reorganisation begun by Muirchertach Ua Briain in 1105, when he had divided authority in Mide among rival members of its royal house. Mide’s central position, commanding routes between the Shannon, Dublin, Brega and the northern kingdoms, ensured that its succession disputes drew in both Ua Briain and Mac Lochlainn. The kingdom was not simply a prize: its rulers and local kindreds retained enough agency to frustrate outside control.

A New King in Connacht

An even more consequential succession occurred in Connacht. Domnall, son of Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair, was removed, and his younger brother Tairdelbach Ua Conchobair was inaugurated at Áth an Termoinn as king of Síl Muiredaig. Tigernach’s annalist places responsibility upon the Connachta, while the Four Masters emphasise the intervention of Muirchertach Ua Briain. Both elements are plausible: an external patron could promote a candidate only through support within the province.

Tairdelbach was about eighteen years old. Nothing in the 1106 entries could reveal how important his accession would become, but it began a reign lasting half a century. He would eventually consolidate Connacht, intervene repeatedly in Mide and Munster, develop fleets and fortifications, and claim the high-kingship with opposition. In 1106, however, he was still a young provincial ruler whose position owed much to Ua Briain. His inauguration nevertheless marks the emergence of the figure who would dominate Irish politics after the weakening of Ua Briain and the death of Mac Lochlainn.

Cellach’s Circuits

The year’s clearest institutional development concerned Cellach, or Ceallach, successor of Patrick at Armagh. Chosen in 1105, he had accepted ecclesiastical orders rather than remaining a lay head of Armagh’s extensive church federation. In 1106 he undertook his first recorded visitation of Cenél Eógain. The Annals of Ulster specify his customary due: a cow from every six persons, an in-calf heifer from every three, or half an ounce from every four, together with voluntary offerings. Such exact figures reveal the material foundation of ecclesiastical authority. A visitation was simultaneously pastoral journey, public demonstration of status and organised collection of revenue.

Cellach then travelled through Munster, where he received seven cows, seven sheep and half an ounce from every cantred, as well as valuables and other gifts. During this circuit he received what the annals call the orders or dignity of a “noble bishop”, by the command or consent of the men of Ireland. The precise place is not stated, although Cashel has often been suggested. Nor should the annalistic phrase be treated as if it described a later archiepiscopal constitution already complete. What can responsibly be said is that Cellach’s episcopal consecration joined the headship of Patrick’s community to sacramental episcopal office and strengthened Armagh’s claim to primacy.

The death in the same year of Cáenchomrac Ua Baígill, described as a noble bishop of Armagh, removed the existing episcopal incumbent. Cellach’s new position therefore helped bring abbatial and episcopal leadership together. This was an important stage in the reform movement that culminated in the Synod of Ráith Bressail in 1111. The emerging programme favoured canonically ordained bishops, clearer diocesan organisation and stronger connections with reformers elsewhere in western Christendom. Limerick’s selection of the reforming bishop Gilbert is conventionally dated to 1106–07, so it belongs to the immediate setting of Cellach’s advance even though it cannot securely be confined to this calendar year.

Churches and Learning

The number of ecclesiastical deaths recorded in 1106 illustrates the density and regional variety of Ireland’s church. Tuathal Ua Cathail, successor of Cóemgen at Glendalough, was remembered as both priest and lector. Mac Bethad Ua hÁilgenáin, successor of Barre, headed the community associated with St Fin Barre at Cork. The Annals of Inisfallen also note the deaths of an erenagh and brehon at Mungret, the successor of Dún dá Lethglas at Downpatrick, and Bishop Ua Baígill. These were not interchangeable offices. Coarbs claimed succession to founding saints; erenaghs administered ecclesiastical lands and households; bishops performed sacramental functions; and lectors taught and interpreted learned texts.

Clonmacnoise suffered a particularly revealing loss. The Four Masters record the death of Muirchertach Ua Cernaigh, praised as a leading lector of the Irish, and name a vice-abbot and the erenagh of the monastery’s guest-house among those who died. They also report that Máel Muire, son of Mac Cuinn na mBocht, was killed by plunderers inside the great stone church. The notice is a reminder that sanctuary was not always respected. It also places a masonry church, a guest-house and a hierarchy of learned and administrative officers within one major settlement, showing how monasteries served worshippers, students, travellers, dependants and political patrons.

Fire destroyed Dísert Diarmata—modern Castledermot—together with its oak church. The wording indicates a substantial timber building, although the settlement also possessed monuments in stone. Accidental fire is possible, and the annal does not name an attacker, so the destruction should not be assigned to warfare without evidence. Timber churches, halls, workshops and dwellings remained vulnerable to flame even at prominent ecclesiastical centres.

Wealth and Daily Life

The records of Cellach’s dues offer the best direct glimpse of economic life in 1106. Cattle remained stores of wealth, sources of dairy produce and socially meaningful payments. Sheep, silver by weight and portable valuables supplemented them. The alternatives in the Cenél Eógain assessment suggest that obligations could be calculated across groups of people and discharged in different forms. In Munster, assessment by cantred linked ecclesiastical income to territorial organisation. Yet these were high-level institutional demands, not a complete picture of household exchange.

Archaeology supplies the broader context, which must not be mistaken for events unique to 1106. Most people lived in a managed rural landscape of farmsteads, fields, pasture, routeways and older ringfort settlements. Mixed agriculture supported communities, though cattle held exceptional economic and political importance. Cereal cultivation mattered too: armies could devastate a district by burning corn, as Ua Briain’s forces had done during the Mide struggle of 1105. Dublin, Waterford, Wexford, Cork and Limerick connected Irish rulers and producers to Irish Sea commerce, while monasteries functioned as local centres of hospitality, craftwork, storage and learning. The annals record no securely dated commercial innovation in 1106, but Cellach’s silver assessments show that weighed precious metal existed beside payments in livestock.

An Island in Transition

Irish annalists also recorded the death of Edgar, king of Scotland, reflecting awareness of neighbouring dynasties across the sea. Only the previous year Edgar had sent Muirchertach Ua Briain the celebrated gift of a camel. That episode belongs to 1105, but it illuminates the diplomatic world still surrounding Ua Briain in 1106: Irish kings communicated with Scotland, England, Wales, the Isles and churchmen abroad as well as competing within Ireland.

The lasting importance of 1106 lies in beginnings rather than conclusions. Mide remained unstable, and the rivalry between Ua Briain and Mac Lochlainn was unresolved. Tairdelbach Ua Conchobair had only commenced his ascent. Cellach’s consecration did not instantly create a fully diocesan Irish church. Nevertheless, the year brought a new Connacht kingship and a stronger, episcopal leadership at Armagh. Amid raids, dynastic killings, tribute-bearing cattle, learned monasteries and vulnerable wooden churches, the political and ecclesiastical order of twelfth-century Ireland was taking shape.

Primary Sources

Tags: early medieval Ireland, Four Masters, Ireland Year by Year, Kingship and Reform, Mac Lochlai, Primary SourcesThe Annals