This 23 April is the 1,000th anniversary of the Battle of Clontarf. For a long time it was generally thought that at Clontarf Brian B\u00f3r\u00fa chased the Vikings from Ireland. However, the events are not that simple and are much more complex. Both sides were locked in alliances with other thrones and kingdoms. While Leinster was allied with the Vikings, B\u00f3r\u00fa also had Viking allies. The main opponents of the High King were the brother and son of his estranged wife, Gormlaith, while B\u00f3r\u00fa\u2019s daughter, Sl\u00e1ine, was also married to the Viking king of Dublin, Sitric Silkbeard.<\/p>\n
M\u00e1elm\u00f3rda mac Murchada held the title ri Airthir Liphi<\/i> \u2013 \u2018king of the Eastern Liffey Plain\u2019 \u2013 at the time of the Battle of Clontarf and was Brian B\u00f3r\u00fa\u2019s principal Irish opponent in the fight. The Battle of Clontarf was not only the climax of Leinster\u2019s rebellion against the Munster king Brian B\u00f3r\u00fa, but was also the culmination of the U\u00ed D\u00fanlainge overkinship of the province after 300 years of rule. M\u00e1elm\u00f3rda\u2019s sister, Gormlaith, had married Brian B\u00f3r\u00fa, and both Irish and Norse sources paint her as a malign force, who became embittered with B\u00f3r\u00fa and helped to initiate the Battle of Clontarf by urging her brother M\u00e1elm\u00f3rda to rebel against her husband.<\/p>\n
Gormlaith was born in Naas around 955, the daughter of Murchadh mac Finn, Lord of Naas, King of Leinster. As head of the U\u00ed Fh\u00e1el\u00e1in, a powerful dynasty based at Naas, and one of the three branches of U\u00ed D\u00fanlainge that alternated the overkingship of Leinster between them, Murchad had four sons \u2013 Fael\u00e1n, M\u00e1elm\u00f3rda, Muiredach and M\u00e1el Carmain \u2013 and one daughter, Gormlaith. The identity of her mother is unclear, but Celtic scholar Muireann N\u00ed Bhrolch\u00e1in believes that she was a Norse servant or slave, probably taken by an Irish raiding party and perhaps forcibly baptised. This might explain her undying support, and also M\u00e1elm\u00f3rda\u2019s support, to her first-born, half-Viking son, Sitric. It would also explain the animosity towards Gormlaith in Irish and Norse literature. The medieval Icelandic Nj\u00e1ls saga<\/i> described Gormlaith as \u2018a most beautiful woman who showed the best qualities in all matters that were not in her power, but in all those that were, people said she showed herself of an evil disposition\u2019. In Irish literature she is painted as an evil, vengeful queen and the instigator of the Battle of Clontarf.<\/p>\n
It is believed that Gormlaith had been married three times to three famous kings, attesting U\u00ed Fh\u00e1el\u00e1in\u2019s involvement at the highest level of dynastic politics during this period. These marriages were political contracts rather than love matches.\u00a0Gormlaith first married the Norse king, Olaf C\u00faar\u00e1n, with whom she bore a son, Sitric Silkbeard; she then married\u00a0 M\u00e1el Sechnaill mac Domnaill, the king of Tara\u00a0\u2013 with whom, it was thought, but not confirmed, she also bore a son, Conchobhar ; she then Brian B\u00f3r\u00fa, with whom it is also thought she bore a son, Donnchad. All three marriages are remarked upon in a witty stanza preserved in the Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland:<\/p>\n
Gormlaith took three leaps,<\/i><\/p>\n
Which a woman shall never take [again],<\/i><\/p>\n
A leap at Ath-cliath, a leap at Teamhair,<\/i><\/p>\n
A leap at Caiseal of the goblets over all. <\/i><\/p>\n
Gormlaith\u2019s first husband was Olaf C\u00faar\u00e1n \u2013 known as \u2018Olaf of the Sandal,\u2019 because he liked Irish footwear.\u00a0 Olaf had come to Dublin in 952 when he lost his throne in Northumbria. At that time Ath-cliath<\/i>, or Dublin, founded by Vikings as a permanent raiding-camp, was Ireland\u2019s first genuine town with an economy based primarily on craft-working and trading, both locally and internationally. According to the Irish annalists Olaf was a Christian. Dublin Vikings had been converting to Christianity since 930 and the city Olaf ruled had timber churches where Christ was worshipped instead of the gods of the Norse and Danes. As part of a contractual alliance with the Leinster kingship Olaf married Gormlaith, probably in the late 960s, when she was in her mid-teens and he was possibly in his fifties. In this period girls were married early, probably as soon as they were capable of bearing children. Her father, Murchadh, may have arranged this marriage. Gormlaith bore Olaf a son, Sitric, and in all accounts, she appears to favour him above the others.<\/p>\n
In 979 the Dublin Vikings were defeated by the Ardr\u00ed <\/i>(High King) M\u00e1el Sechnaill, son of Domhnall Ua N\u00e9ill a prince of the Southern U\u00ed N\u00e9ill, at Tara <\/i>(Teamhair). The following year M\u00e1el Sechnaill (also known as Malachy the Great, or Malachy II), marched on Dublin and following a siege that lasted three days, captured the city, took much plunder and freed 2,000 Irish slaves. M\u00e1el Sechnaill made it plain that Dublin was now under his authority and that the Vikings would have to pay him tribute as the High King of Ireland. Olaf, the old Viking, could not stand for this. He abdicated and went off to the island of Iona in the Inner Hebrides on pilgrimage. M\u00e1el Sechnaill occupied Dublin, and installed Olaf\u2019s son, Sitric, as its ruler in return for paying him considerable tribute. Olaf died at a monastery on Iona in 981, at which point Gormlaith returned to Ireland. (It is also possible that Gormlaith never left Dublin and stayed to protect her own and her son\u2019s interests.) In a possible strategic move, M\u00e1el Sechnaill married Gormlaith, around 984, becoming Sitric\u2019s stepfather. Sitric may have expressed a willingness to do the High King\u2019s bidding, but he still considered himself an independent king. Whatever, the course Dublin continued to remain a Viking stronghold.<\/p>\n
In 982 Brian B\u00f3r\u00fa, then secure as king of Munster, marched his armies out of the province for the first time and launched an assault on neighbouring Osraige. A Leinster alliance would have proved useful at this point and he found an ally in M\u00e1elm\u00f3rda mac Murchada. His father, Murchad, overking of the province, was treacherously killed in 972 by Domhnall Claen, after they had eaten and drank together, at which point the kingship went to the second branch, U\u00ed Muiredaig, and then in 978 to the third branch, U\u00ed D\u00fanchada, after which the conventional expectation was that the next overking would be M\u00e1elm\u00f3rda. But when the U\u00ed D\u00fanchada incumbent died in 984 M\u00e1elm\u00f3rda failed to secure it for his line. An alliance with the king of Munster might just hand the kingship back to M\u00e1elm\u00f3rda.<\/p>\n
M\u00e1el Sechnaill marched on Dublin again in 989 after he learned that the Leinster men had formed an alliance with his rival, B\u00f3r\u00fa, for the highkingship of Ireland. After a siege of twenty days Sitric capitulated and recognised his stepfather as overlord of Dublin, and promised to pay an ounce of gold for \u2018every garden\u2019 in the city, payment to be made annually on Christmas night. It is unknown if Gormlaith was in Dublin at the time of the siege, but it seems likely that she was then estranged from M\u00e1el Sechnaill. Some time later, M\u00e1el Sechnaill again visited Dublin and to make Sitric\u2019s humiliation complete carried off the ring of Tomar and the sword of Carlus, two heirlooms of the 9th century much valued by the Norsemen. The position was stalemated, but Sitric and his maternal uncle M\u00e1elm\u00f3rda, along with Gormlaith, plotted against the high king.<\/p>\n
When Brian B\u00f3r\u00fa brought his army into Leinster in 998 he secured the submission of its overking, Donnchad of U\u00ed D\u00fanchada. (An overkingship consisted of a king\u2019s power being recognized by another kingdom. This would usually be established by a military campaign. An overking had power over other lesser kings, like the king of Naas, etc.) However, Donnchad was taken captive by the Norse king of Dublin, Sitric, and M\u00e1elm\u00f3rda, his rival for the Leinster overkingship. Donnchad was deposed for the time being, while M\u00e1elm\u00f3rda took the title in his place. M\u00e1el Sechnaill was in no doubt that Gormlaith was part of the conspiracy and her repudiation, under the Brehon law, must have followed swiftly on the events in Kildare.<\/p>\n
Both M\u00e1el Sechnaill and Brian B\u00f3r\u00fa decided to undertake a major military advance into Leinster. Their combined armies met the Leinstermen and Norsemen at the Battle of Glenn M\u00e1ma (between Rathcoole and Kill) on 30 December 999. The battle was the greatest triumph of B\u00f3r\u00fa\u2019s career to date and the slaughter on both sides was immense. Sitric\u2019s brother, Haraldr, next in line to the Dublin throne, was among the dead. The day after the battle M\u00e1elm\u00f3rda was captured, hiding in a yew tree and dragged from it by B\u00f3r\u00fa\u2019s son Murchad. His life was spared, a mistake B\u00f3r\u00fa would live to regret.<\/p>\n
B\u00f3r\u00fa and his new ally, M\u00e1el Sechnaill, stormed the d\u00fan<\/i>, or fortress, of Dublin on New Year\u2019s Day 1000. They burned the d\u00fan <\/i>(present day site of Dublin Castle) carried off its gold, silver and captives and expelled its king, Sitric, who fled by ship to the east Ulster kingdom of Ulaid. Sitric negotiated a return to Dublin, only by making formal submission to B\u00f3r\u00fa and handing over his hostages, including Donnchad, king of Leinster. The Norseman was reinstated as king of Dublin, but Sitirc was now B\u00f3r\u00fa\u2019s vassal and owed him military service in return. B\u00f3r\u00fa further cemented his alliance with Sitric by marrying off one of his daughters, Sl\u00e1ine, to the Norse king – thus she was married to the son of her stepmother! M\u00e1elm\u00f3rda, was kept in captivity until all the hostages of Leinster were freed at which point he was released.<\/p>\n
To make his position, and his ambition, perfectly clear to Dublin, Leinster and Meath, B\u00f3r\u00fa took Gormlaith, mother of Sitric and repudiated wife of M\u00e1el Sechnaill, as his second wife. B\u00f3r\u00fa, nearing sixty, was still an active man and Gormlaith, in her mid-forties, was undoubtedly an attractive woman. The union was a sound political move. Gormlaith reputedly had one son for B\u00f3r\u00fa, Donnchad, who lived until 1064 and succeeded his father immediately after Clontarf. He died in Rome as an old man, but would have only been fifteen at the time of Clontarf, so was possibly the son of Brian\u2019s wife, Dubhchobhlaigh. Under Brehon law it was permissible for a man to have more than one wife and it would appear that B\u00f3r\u00fa was married to two women at once. Dubhchobhlaigh would have been B\u00f3r\u00fa\u2019s \u2018lawful\u2019 wife, while Gormlaith a secondary, perhaps temporary wife, fully recognised by law and everyone at the time.<\/p>\n
B\u00f3r\u00fa had set his eyes on the Ardr\u00ed<\/i> of Ireland and with an army drawn from Munster, Dublin, Leinster and Connacht marched on Tara. He made short work of Cathal of Connaught on the way and sent a messenger to M\u00e1el Sechnaill, asking for his abdication. M\u00e1el Sechnaill, aware of B\u00f3r\u00fa\u2019s strength had appealed to the northern U\u00ed N\u00e9ill, but help was not forthcoming. The inability of the north to put aside personal jealousy and join in a united front against B\u00f3r\u00fa, or the Norse and Leinster incursions, led to M\u00e1el Sechnaill having no choice but to abdicate the highkingship in favour of the Munster king.<\/p>\n
The new High King was declared \u2018Briain Imperatoris Scotorum\u2019 \u2013 Brian, Emperor of the Irish \u2013 Scots, or Scoti, being the name given to the Irish until the following century. In 1003 B\u00f3r\u00fa deposed Donnchad and hoping to keep the Leinstermen in check, installed M\u00e1elm\u00f3rda as king of Leinster. Ireland endured a decade of peace, but in 1012 B\u00f3r\u00fa imposed a fresh tribute, or B\u00f3ramha<\/i>, on Leinster. The B\u00f3ramha<\/i> had long caused bitterness in kings and people and the Annals of Clonmacnoise<\/i> record the annual tribute as being 150 cows, 150 hogs, 150 coverletts (to cover beds), 150 cauldrons, 150 couples (men and women) in servitude and 150 maids, including the king of Leinster\u2019s own daughter.<\/p>\n
Dubhchobhlaigh, B\u00f3r\u00fa\u2019s wife had died in 1009, which left Gormlaith residing at B\u00f3r\u00fa\u2019s court in Kincora. Medieval scholar Roger Chatterton Newman believes that the re-imposition of the B\u00f3ramha<\/i> on Leinster could have been because Gormlaith, snubbed and isolated by her step-sons, might have left Kincora for her brother\u2019s court and Brian, prompted perhaps by his favourite son, Murchadh, reimposed the hated tribute. B\u00f3r\u00fa knew that Leinster looked down on him as an interloper in the matter of kingship and he imposed a much heavier tribute on the rebellious province-kingdom. When the tribute was not forthcoming Murchadh was sent to plunder Leinster.<\/p>\n
B\u00f3r\u00fa tried to mend the rift with M\u00e1elm\u00f3rda, but Gormlaith was at the centre of a conspiracy, inciting her brother to rebellion, out of shame felt at the subordination of her province of Leinster to B\u00f3r\u00fa\u2019s overlordship. Leinster withdrew its official submission to the High King and prepared for battle. Sitric of Dublin promised support to his uncle, who also sought aid from the U\u00ed N\u00e9ill in Aileach and other Irish princes. M\u00e1elm\u00f3rda\u2019s allies attacked B\u00f3r\u00fa\u2019s loyal ally, M\u00e1el Sechnaill in Meath. The king of Tara retaliated leading an army into the Norse-controlled territory of north Co. Dublin and burning Sitric\u2019s heartland from Fingal to the Hill of Howth, but a contingent of his army was overtaken south of Swords and defeated by Sitric and M\u00e1elm\u00f3rda. The two kings continued their attacks on M\u00e1el Sechnaill\u2019s kingdom of Meath, from which they brought back plunder and captives to Dublin. Sitric travelled overseas to gain more aid and support from Vikings outside Ireland, most notably Earl Sigurd of Orkney and Brodir of the Isle of Man. Sitric promised Sigurd his mother\u2019s hand in marriage and overlordship of the eastern kingdoms on the death of B\u00f3r\u00fa. The conflict Gormlaith engineered now came to a climax at the Battle of Clontarf.<\/p>\n
The two armies met at Clontarf on Good Friday, 23 April 1014. B\u00f3r\u00fa had an army of around 5,000, mainly Munster men, but also his allies from Tara and Meath, and Vikings from the south. Facing them was an army of around 3,000 Leinstermen, \u2018foreign\u2019 Norsemen and Dublin Norsemen. The Leinster contingent may have been fairly small. At the head of the Leinstermen was M\u00e1elm\u00f3rda mac Murchada, king of Leinster. Sitric did not take part in the battle, remaining within the d\u00fan <\/i>of Dublin to ensure it did not fall into Irish hands, as it had after the Battle of Glenn <\/i>M\u00e1ma. He watched the course of the fight unfold from the wooden battlements of Dublin. \u00a0With him was his wife, Sl\u00e1ine, daughter of Brian B\u00f3r\u00fa, and possibly his mother Gormlaith, wife of Brian B\u00f3r\u00fa.<\/p>\n
Clontarf was the bloodiest battle in Irish history up to that time. It began at sunrise and continued into the evening. The battle saw the Norse and Leinster army annihilated. Every one of their leaders, M\u00e1elm\u00f3rda, Sigurd, and Brodir were slain; Sitric\u2019s brother, Dubgall was killed leading the Dublin contingent, and also his nephew Gilla Ciarain. M\u00e1elm\u00f3rda fell on the battlefield, but it is unknown how. There also fell an U\u00ed Muiredaig prince, Tuathal mac Augaire, who was a potential king of Leinster, and the son of Brogarb\u00e1n mac Conchobair, from whom the U\u00ed Conchobair Failgi (O\u2019Connor Faly) descend. Although victorious Brian was killed by Brodir of Man, who was fleeing the battle. Brodir gathered a few warriors and burst through the thinned pen of shields guarding the seventy-three-year-old High King and killed him with a blow of his axe. He was instantly captured and subsequently suffered a very long, cruel, and grisly death.<\/p>\n
The Irish paid dearly for their victory though, with the death of Brian Bor\u00fa, his son Murchad, grandson Turlough, brother Cuduiligh, and nephew Conaing. In addition ten Munster kings and many other nobles also perished. B\u00f3r\u00fa\u2019s army was too depleted to attack Dublin where Sitric was in a better position to repel any onslaught. Donnchad, as senior over his brother Tadhg, succeeded Brian and lead the survivors of Clontarf home to Kincora.<\/p>\n
The Norsemen of Ireland were not seriously affected in their position by the Irish victory at Clontarf, but it did signal the end of paganism among them. The national distinction between the Irish and the Vikings, however, continued until after the Anglo-Norman arrival. In many instances the Norse sided with the Gaelic chieftains against the Normans.<\/p>\n
From M\u00e1elm\u00f3rda\u2019s son Bran (d.1052) the U\u00ed D\u00fanlainge dynasty adopted the surname Ua Brain (O\u2019Byrne). He became king in 1016 after the deaths in quick succession of two other rulers of Leinster. Four years after Clontarf Sitric blinded, in Dublin, Bran \u2013 his cousin \u2013 and within a few decades the U\u00ed D\u00fanlainge were permanently ousted from the overkingship of Leinster by the long-overshadowed U\u00ed Chennselaig in the south of the province. The annals record that Gormlaith died in 1030, aged in her seventies. What happened Gormlaith after Clontarf is open to conjecture \u2013 she could have lived within the protected walls of her son\u2019s kingdom, or returned to Naas and a quiet end within monastic walls, as other women of her mould had done. In the end, Gormlaith\u2019s intrigues had led to the weakening and, eventually, destruction of the power of her own family in Leinster and that of her son in Dublin.<\/p>\n
In 1028 after a much publicised pilgrimage to Rome Sitric Silkbeard gave a grant of gold and treasure and a site to build a church dedicated to the Holy Trinity, establishing what would become Christchurch Cathedral in Dublin. Sitric\u2019s death is recorded as 1042, but his burial place is unknown. It may reasonably be assumed to have been in the Dublin colony in Gwynedd, Wales, where his descendents constituted the ruling dynasty. His daughter, Cailleach Fion\u00e1in, died in the same month, but it is unsure if she was the daughter of Sl\u00e1ine, who had watched the rout of the Leinstermen and the Norsemen by her kinsmen, the Munstermen, from the walls of Dublin.<\/p>\n
by James Durney<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This 23 April is the 1,000th anniversary of the Battle of Clontarf. For a long time it was generally thought that at Clontarf Brian B\u00f3r\u00fa chased the Vikings from Ireland. However, the events are not that simple and are much more complex. Both sides were locked in alliances with other thrones and kingdoms. While Leinster […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[128],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-military-history"],"blocksy_meta":[],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Kildare Local Studies","author_link":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/author\/localstudies\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1482"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8106,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1482\/revisions\/8106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}