THE KILDARE WOMAN WHO CAUSED THE BATTLE OF CLONTARF
The Kildare woman who caused the battle of Clontarf
By Liam Kenny
Blame the battle of Clontarf on a Kildare woman. More specifically on a lass from Naas who was the femme fatale of the Viking age. The lady in question was Gormfhlaith, daughter of the king of Leinster who resided in Nás na Ríogh – Naas of the kings. In her eventful life she was married three of the leading figures in the kingly politics of Ireland in the late tenth century. And according to some scholars she was adept at playing one faction off against another. Quoted against her is an old norse saga which portrayed the Leinster princess as being “the fairest of women but … she was in all things evilly disposed when she had her will.” The most dramatic outcome of her intrigue was her role in prompting the battle at Clontarf on 23 April 1014 which coloured the waters of Dublin Bay red with the blood of Norsemen.
In fairness to Gormfhlaith little encouragement was needed – the chieftains of the day (males, of course) were well able to go to war on the slightest pretence. And just as easily make peace with those they had quarrelled with a few years previously if an alliance was in their interests. Add in to that fluid picture the Vikings who had evolved from being marauders who plundered monasteries to becoming model citizens who formed the nucleus of sophisticated urban societies laying foundations for Waterford, Limerick and Dublin. The Ireland of the first millennium was therefore a complex weave of clans and Scandinavians who made constantly shifting alliances in their leaders’ attempts to gain a commanding presence on the island of Ireland. Shannon-sider Brian Boru was the only chieftain who could credibly claim that his kingship approached that of a high king. Through picking his enemies well and his allies even better Brian managed to gain an eminence which eluded other chieftains.
But back to Gormfhlaith and her times. Her father was Murchad mac Finn, king of Leinster for a short period around 970 whose influence probably extended over the plains on either side of the course of the Liffey. She came to maturity in a Leinster which was becoming increasingly permeable to the influence of the Norsemen who left a mark down through a millennium on the place-names and family names of the region. The standout example of Norse naming is Leixlip derived from an old Anglo-Norse word for the leap of the salmon. A small stream in east Kildare may also take its name from the foreigners. The Annagaul stream which flows from the hills above Rathmore may be translated as “the river of the foreigners.”
Family names bear a notable Scandinavian influence. For example McAuliffe is a clear translation from “Mac Olaf”, the son of Olaf. Doyles, Coyles and MacDowells are said to have derived from Danish ancestors while O’Loughlins and MacLoughlins are thought to have had some Norwegian bloodlines.
It was not surprising then that Gormfhlaith was married to Olaf Cuaran – Norse king of Dublin. It almost certainly was an arranged marriage as the canny chieftains of the time wasted no opportunity when it came to using “soft power” to extend their alliances. The son of their marriage known as “Sitric Silkenbeard” is one of the few figures from that distant era for whom there is solid evidence. A coin minted with the image and name of Sitric from the year 997 has survived … probably the first attempt to introduce a European monetary system to Ireland.
Sitric made a deal with Maelmordha, Gormfhlaith’s brother and king of Leinster in succession to his father. Their plan was to recruit the help of the warlike Norsemen from their coastal bases in the Orkneys and the Isle of Man and line them up in a confrontation with Brian Boru. Some annalists have seen his mother’s conniving hand in prompting Sitric to recruit the help of the Vikings while at the same time being shrewd enough to stay holed up in his fort in Dublin while his new found allies were slaughtered at Clontarf.
Meanwhile Gormfhlaith entered into a second marriage this time to Mailseachainn who had the name of being high-king of Tara but who eventually conceded that Brian Boru was the true leader of the Irish. Possibly sensing which way the wind was blowing Gormfhlaith separated from Mailseachainn and married Brian and returns to his fort at Kincora on the west shore of the Shannon in modern Co. Clare. Brian through his military exploits but also through his wise and conciliatory nature was now to preside over a decade or more of peace. The fruits of local and foreign parts flowed into his residence on the Shannon which facilitated easy trade with the Vikings of Limerick. Here Gormfhlaith had a position of privilege because according to custom even the great high king was enjoined “to keep no secret from the queen, his bride.” So Gormfhlaith enjoyed the finer things of life brought to Kincora by the Viking traders and also a position of confidence at the centre of the royal court. However one gets the impression that she was a city girl at heart and longed to get back to Dublin where the industrious Danes had created a town which ranked among the most sophisticated in western Europe. Coins and weights and measures found in the excavations in the city attest to their sense of civic organisation; abundant finds of combs highlight their attention to personal grooming. What woman would not be attracted by such a cosmopolitan combination in contrast to the rustic privations of the rugged Clare hills?
Whatever the motivation Gormfhlaith is said to have conspired to prompt her brother Maelmordha into provoking Brian back on to the battlefield. The now sixty-year old king learned that his wife’s brother and son were conspiring with the foreigners to challenge his power in Ireland. He marched north and by the autumn of 1013 was encamped on outskirts of the Dublin area. It was to the northern shore of the area where the Vikings, lured by promises of victory from Gormfhlaith’s brother and son, converged in their hundreds, their longboat warships causing a sensation as they rounded Howth head. Although renowned for their long-distance navigation and for their advanced weapons everything went wrong for the Vikings at Clontarf. They beached on an exceptionally high tide which meant that their boats were dragged back out to deep water as the sea ebbed strongly. They were met by formidable ranks of Brian’s warriors who pushed them back towards the shoreline. With their boats swept out to sea the Vikings’ options were limited. Some attempted to escape south along the bay to reach the fort of Dublin where their host Sitric had holed up. And there too, having fled from Brian and got to Dublin ahead of him was the agile Gormfhlaith. Any worries she might have had of being pursued by an angry Brian were brought to an end when one of the few Vikings to break through the lines happened on high-king praying and his tent and slew him. Nonetheless the day was a decisive victory for the Brian’s warriors and it was to be another two centuries before the island was threatened again, this time by descendants of the Norsemen who came via France and Wales – the Normans.
But that is a story for another day. For Gormfhlaith, the Kildare woman at the heart of so much intrigue the judgement of history has been severe. According to one of the old annals she took “a leap at Dublin, a leap at Tara, and a leap at Cashel” – a verse which has implied that she manoeuvred her way through a succession of claimants for the kingship of Ireland. But then the history was written by men … Leinster Leader 22 April 2014, Looking Back, Series no: 378.
