BRIAN BORU (926[?]–1014) law changed, and indeed as the Irish language itself changed. These glosses and commentaries date Fertas Camsa DAL RIATA CENÉL CENÉL mainly from the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries. Ráith M´or CONAILL nEÓGAIN The surviving legal manuscripts also date from this NORTHERN DAL nARÁIDE period. Assaroe UÍ NÉILL Armagh Tracht DÁL FIATACH NEIL MCLEOD Eothaile AIRGIALLA UÍ BRIÚIN BRÉIFNE Dundalk Ferta Nime r o n SOUTHERN CORAILLE MUIRTSMORE CONNACHT n a UÍ NÉILL h Tara S References and Further Reading . Uisnech R Athlone Clontari (1014) Port Dá Dublin Binchy, Daniel, ed. Studies in Early Irish Law. Dublin: Dublin Chainóc Glenn Mámia (999) Institute for Advanced Studies, 1936. LAIGIN Breatnach, Liam. Uraicecht na Ríar: The Poetic Grades in Early Kincora Irish Law. Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, DAL CAIS Limerick OSRAIGE 1987. Wexford ———. “Lawyers in Early Ireland.” In Brehons, Serjeants & UÍ FIDGENTE DÉISI Waterford Belach Attorneys, edited by D. Hogan and W. N. Osborough, 1–13. DESMUMU Lechta (978) Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1990. Cork ———. “Law.” In Progress in Medieval Irish Studies, edited by K. McCone and K. Simms, 107–121. Maynooth, Ireland: The Department of Old Irish, Saint Patrick’s College, 1996. Hancock, W. N., et al., eds. Ancient Laws of Ireland.Vols 1–6. The Age of Brian Boru. Dublin: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1865–1901. Kelly, Fergus. A Guide to Early Irish Law. Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1988. ———. Early Irish Farming. Dublin: Dublin Institute for Career Advanced Studies, 1997. According to many Irish annals, Brian was in the ———, and Charles-Edwards, Thomas. Bechbretha. An Old- Irish Law-Tract on Bee-Keeping. Dublin: Dublin Institute eighty-eighth year of his life when he was slain in for Advanced Studies, 1983. 1014, and thus was born in 926 or 927. His birth is McLeod, Neil. Early Irish Contract Law. Sydney: University also recorded retrospectively in 923 or 942. His mother of Sydney, Centre for Celtic Studies,1992. was Bé Bind, the daughter of Aurchad (d. 945), king Patterson, Nerys. Cattle Lords & Clansmen: The Social Struc- of West Connacht. He may have been called Brian ture of Early Ireland. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1994. “Bóruma” from the territory of Bóruma near Killaloe Stacey, Robyn Chapman. The Road to Judgment: From Custom in Thomond, in the heartlands of the Dál Cais. His to Court in Medieval Ireland and Wales. Philadelphia: Uni- epithet is also rendered “Bóraime,” meaning “of the versity of Pennsylvania Press, 1994. cattle-tribute,” but this is probably a later interpreta- See also Canon Law; Common Law; tion. Brian was one of the twelve sons of Cennétig Law Schools, Learned Families; Law Texts; mac Lorcáin of the Dál Cais, who died as king of March Law Thomond in 951. The Dál Cais profited from the weak- ness of the divided Eóganachta, especially after the death of Cellachán Caisil, king of Cashel, in 954. Afterwards, the kingship of Cashel was occupied by BRIAN BORU (926[?]–1014) lesser men whose careers were cut short by violent Brian Boru was arguably the most famous medieval death. This situation gave Mathgamain mac Cennétig Irish king, due to his achievement in becoming the the opportunity to extend his domination to the south. undisputed king of Ireland and his death by the According to Cogad Gáedel re Gallaib (The War of Norsemen at Clontarf in 1014. Later tradition turned the Irish against the Foreigners), a text which dates him into the first true high king of the island and a from the reign of Brian’s great-grandson Muirchertach heroic fighter for Ireland’s freedom against the Ua Briain, he set up his camp near Cashel in 964. oppression of the heathen Vikings. Historians of the Mathgamain wanted to become king of Cashel in order modern era have regarded him as an upstart from to free Munster from its cruel Viking occupation. But Munster who broke into the domination that the stories about the subsequent liberation of Munster and kings of Tara had enjoyed over Ireland for centuries. the claim that the kingship of Cashel was the ancient More true to the facts, Brian played a pivotal role in birthright of the Dál Cais are simply propaganda to the transformation of the Irish political landscape in legitimize Mathgamain’s coup. Contemporary annals the tenth and eleventh centuries. recognize him as king of Cashel when he and his allies 45 BRIAN BORU (926[?]–1014) attacked Limerick in 967. In the years afterwards he Leinster, and Sitriuc Silkenbeard, king of Dublin, who subjugated his rivals for the kingship of Munster, were, respectively, the brother and son of Brian’s wife whom he subsequently enlisted as his supporters. Gormfhlaith. Both had a long-standing row with Mathgamain was treacherously killed by such new Brian’s allies, the Uí Dúnchada in Leinster and the allies in 976, but within two years, the kings respon- Norsemen of Waterford. When they openly defied his sible were defeated and slain by his brother Brian. overlordship, Brian gathered his forces, and routed As the new king of Munster, Brian first consolidated them in the battle of Glenn Máma in 999. Dublin was his position at home, before starting a series of cam- plundered, and Sitriuc fled, but he found no asylum in paigns to obtain the hostages of the kings of Osraige, the north. Upon his return he gave his submission, and Leinster, and Connacht. This ensured him of the hos- it may be on this occasion that he married Brian’s tility of Máel-Sechnaill II, the new king of Tara, who daughter Sláine. Dublin was now in Brian’s hands, and retaliated by plundering Leinster and Connacht. The this tilted the balance of power in his favor. In 1002, ruling dynasties of the two provinces had long been Brian managed to take the hostages of the men of traditional allies of Clann Cholmáin of Mide (Meath). Connacht and Mide after Máel-Sechnaill’s pleas for A period of more than fifteen years followed in which help to the northern Uí Néill had been rebuffed. When both kings tried to gain the upper hand in the two the kings of Ailech and Ulaid slew each other in battle provinces, while occasionally raiding each other’s in 1004, Brian, accompanied by most of the Irish territories. A direct confrontation was either avoided royalty and their hostages, brought an army to or did not give one side a decisive victory. In the long Armagh the next year. He left twenty ounces of gold run Brian’s tactics, stamina, and diplomacy paid off. on the altar of St. Patrick, and had his secretary add He maintained a firm grip on the Munster kings, built to the Book of Armagh a note in which he is pro- a number of fortresses to defend his home territory, claimed as imperator Scottorum (emperor of the launched several campaigns at the same time, Irish). This can be regarded as a claim that he ruled employed the Norse fleets of Limerick and Waterford both the Irish and the Norse in Ireland, and may even along the Shannon and against Dublin, and turned imply suzerainty over the Gaels of Scotland, some of former enemies into supportive allies. whom fought on his side. In 1006, Brian took his Of Brian’s sons, Murchad is most often mentioned forces on a circuit through the territories of the north- as an army-leader in his service. The annals state that ern Uí Néill and the Ulaid, acting as a lord would he was in the sixty-third year of his life when he was when visiting his clients. But his overlordship was slain in 1014. Murchad was the son of Mór, who was not recognized, and it would take several other cam- the daughter of Eidin (d. 906), king of the Uí Fhi- paigns in 1010 and 1011 before Brian secured the achrach Aidni of southern Connacht; Murchad also hostages of all Leth Cuinn. Thus Brian achieved what fathered Conchobar and Flann. Brian’s other sons no Munster king and few kings of Tara had been able were Domnall (d. 1010 or 1011), who was the son to do, obtaining the submission of all the Irish over- of either Dub Coblach (d. 1009), daughter of Cathal kings and Viking kings. It is symptomatic of the (d. 1010), king of Connacht, or of the daughter of political relationships between the Irish kings that his Carlus, king of Uí Áeda Odba in Mide, who is also success was shortlived. recorded as the mother of Tadg (d. 1023). Brian was also married to Gormfhlaith (d. 1030), daughter of Clontarf Murchad (d. 972), king of Leinster, and mother of Donnchad (d. 1065). Since Donnchad was an adult in In 1012, Flaithbertach ua Néill, king of Ailech and 1014, this last relationship dates from before 997, Brian’s son-in-law, started to reassert his position as when Brian and Máel-Sechnaill came to terms at a overking of the northern part of Ireland. The next meeting near Clonfert. On this occasion they divided year the Laigin and Dublin Norse revolted, and nei- Ireland into two spheres of influence according to an ther Brian nor Máel-Sechnaill was able to quell them old scheme: the north (Leth Cuinn) was given to Máel- at once. According to both Irish and Old-Icelandic Sechnaill, the south (Leth Moga) to Brian. Brian saga-literature, Gormfhlaith played a decisive role in exchanged his hostages of Connacht with those of stirring her brother Mael Mórda to revolt, and in Leinster and Dublin which had been in Máel-Sechnaill’s enlisting the support of the leader of the Vikings of possession.