During medieval period, was South Ireland existing as seperate kingdom and was there the title Prince of Eire?

Question

South Ireland as a seperate country from Britain, was it also a seperate kingdom in the medieval period and what was the title of their prince or their croiwn prince

Answer 1

Hi, there's a lot to answer here! Ireland has a long history, and most people only know the modern part which all happened after medieval times, or the part that happened after the English conquest.

Yes - King Henry II (of England) invaded Ireland, which was then a separate country, in 1172, on the authority of the Pope.

The church had more power then, than any Kings or Queens or Princes - that was the Catholic church - the Protestant movement hadn't been born back then. Every Christian was a catholic, and many were still pagan.

And Northern Ireland was created as a separate political state in 1921.

Ireland, the island, had five kingdoms (provinces) back then. The 'royal' 5th province was ruled by the High King from Tara, who had a lot of power by agreement with the kings of the other provinces, but any unjust ruler could be removed from office, not only by force, but for unpopular or illegal decisions, and replaced.

The High King's title was 'Ard-Ri' in Gaelic - it's pronounced
like 'Ord, Ree'. His sons would not have had a title other than son of (Mac-) until and if one of them was elected ruler after his death. The closest Irish title to 'prince' would have been Taniste ('tawnish-ta' is how you'd say it).

When you talk about feudal kingship, and princes, that was pretty much an alien concept to the Irish people of that day.

Kingship wasn't totally hereditary - three generations of one family would elect the next ruler from the best candidates.
Even if elected, they would have to step down if, for example, they lost an eye, or a hand, or were mentally ill - or were unfit in other ways, under the laws of that time, to hold and defend and administer that office.

In the 7th century, Ireland had a formal legal system which was revised every three years, and was subject to appeal. That's far from the total power of kingship & automatic inheritance implied by princes and kings. There were lawyers, translators, physicians, judges; written law texts, deputations to other countries, back then; although they did work for kings, they also worked for the pagan traders and anyone who was a citizen.

Also, some early Welsh kings bore Irish names. You could look up princes there if you like : )

Answer 2

On the island of Ireland there were 4 bigger and some smaller independent kingdoms. Ulster in the north was one of the big ones, and it's wrong to call todays Northern Ireland Ulster, as NI is smaller than the kingdom Ulster was. But I doubt that there was a kingdom named Eire or a Prince of Eire, as these kingdoms all had names with the ending -ster.
These kingdoms became under "soft" English rule (after 1171/72) dukedoms. The king of England named one of the dukes his deputy, until in 1534 Henry VIII proclaimed himself king of Ireland.

Answer 3

No. The current division is a result of the Irish Revolution, which drove the British out of southern Ireland. The toehold in the North is due to a large population of Anglicans.

A great deal of Ireland was conquered by the Normans in the 12th century (see reference), and remained essentially an English possession for the rest of the Middle Ages.

A revolt in 1641 threw the English out.

Cromwell re-conquered most of Southern and Eastern Ireland in 1649-50.

Answer 4

I'm not certain of all this, but the island of Ireland was divided into 4 kingdoms;
Ulster (roughly the area of present Northern Ireland), Munster, Leinster, and a fourth one whose name I can't remember!
I'm sure other people can add more details.

Answer 5

No. You could do no worse than read "The Isles" A History by Norman Davies.