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History
The title High King of Ireland is attested many times in
the records of the early medieval period. In its earlier range this usage reflects dynastic aspiration and propaganda rather than
reality but towards the twelfth century a real office of this name was being contested between three regional dynasties. The
title together with its nascent kingdom was extinguished in the wake of the Anglo-Norman invasion of 1169.
A new kingship going by the name King of Ireland was created by an act of the Irish Parliament of 1541, which replaced the Lordship
of Ireland which had existed from 1171 with the Kingdom of Ireland. By the terms of the act (the Crown of Ireland Act) whoever was king of England
was to be king of Ireland and so its first holder was King
Henry VIII of England.
The title 'King of Ireland' remained as an adjunct to the kingship of England (since 1707 assumed into the kingship of Great Britain) until
1801, when the Act of Union
which merged the Kingdoms of Ireland and Great Britain, came into force. The new kingdom was called the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland. This version of the United Kingdom was abolished when twenty-six of Ireland's counties were formed into
the Irish Free State in 1922.
Under the 1922 Constitution of the Free State, the King became
king in Ireland. However evolution in the concept of the monarchy in the late 1920s replaced the British Empire's concept of a shared crown with a multiple crown, whereby the sovereign became king separately in each of his dominions. This change, introduced in the
Royal Style and Titles Act, recreated the
office of King of Ireland.
In this role, the King exercised a role in the Irish state independent to his role in Britain. The full meaning of this fact
was shown when in 1931 the King as 'King of Ireland' signed an international treaty on
Ireland's behalf as King of Ireland personally presented to him by Ireland's Minister for External Affairs, Patrick McGilligan,
in the absence of any British minister. The King also awarded the Irish Free State an unprecedented degree of independence from Britain, namely its own Great Seal to use. The rest of the
Commonwealth still used Britain's Great Seal of the
Realm. (See also Victor Emmanuel
III of Italy)
In 1936, the 1922 Constitution was amended to remove references to the King, Crown and
Governor-General of the
Irish Free State. However the King of Ireland's role continued by virtue of the External Relations Act, 1936. This procedural role of
representing the Irish Free State in international affairs continued when a new constitution, Bunreacht na hÉireann, was introduced in 1937. It only ceased with the passage of the Republic of Ireland Act, 1948, which came into force in
April 1949. This act, as the name suggested, made
Ireland a republic.
The Crown of Ireland Act was repealed in the republic of Ireland by the Statute Law Revision (Pre-Union Irish Statutes) Act
1962.
Kings or Queens of Ireland
Pre-1169
A kingship of Ireland was contested between three dynasties in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The following were
described as Rig Erenn co fressabra ('Kings of Ireland with opposition'), indicating that the monarchy was not yet settled in the
hands of a single family. Periods of heightened contention can be deduced from overlapping dates.
- Toirrdelbach Ua Briain 1072-1086
- Domnall MacLochlainn 1090-1121
- Muirchertach Ua Briain 1093-1119
- Toirrdelbach Ua Conchobair 1121-1156
- Muirchertach MacLochlainn 1149-1166
- Ruaidri Ua Conchobair 1166-1183(abdicated).
for the full list of pre-1169 High Kings of Ireland, see List of High Kings of Ireland
under the 1541-1800 Kingdom of Ireland (in personal union with England/Great Britain)
(George III from 1801, George
IV, William IV, Victoria, Edward VII and George V served as monarchs as the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland between 1801 and 1922)
under the Irish Free State/Éire
Though the 1937 constitution, Bunreacht na hÉireann,
provided for a 'President of Ireland', King George VI was
proclaimed 'King of Ireland' in 1936. No legislative amendment was introduced to amend that title, which in Ireland operated
under a combination of the External Relations Act, 1936 and Article 28 of the Bunreacht. (When in 1952, the Union of South Africa accidentally included the title 'Queen of Ireland' among Queen
Elizabeth II's titles, the mistake was immediately rectified.)
Fiction
The children's book The King of Ireland's Son published in 1962 and written
by Irish author Brendan Behan tells the fictitious adventures of the
young son of the King or Ireland in a fairy tale world.
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