Fractured Lordships
Ireland in 1032 was still living with the political consequences of the age of Brian Bórama and Máel Sechnaill mac Domnaill. Brian had died at Clontarf in 1014; Máel Sechnaill, the last broadly effective claimant to the old Uí Néill high-kingship, died in 1022. By 1032 no single ruler controlled the island. Power was held and contested through provincial kings, overkings, ecclesiastical alliances, hostages, marriages, raids and local settlements. The annals’ emphasis on killings and blindings is not accidental: disabling or removing rivals was a recognised part of dynastic politics, especially where several branches of a ruling kindred could claim legitimacy.