page_title: History of Ireland (1169–1536)
section_title: Papal Bull and Henry II's invasion
hierarchical_section_title: History of Ireland (1169–1536) / Arrival of the Normans (1167–1185) / Papal Bull and Henry II's invasion
context_page_description: The history of Ireland from 1169–1536 covers the period from the arrival of the Cambro-Normans to the reign of Henry II of England, who made his son, Prince John, Lord of Ireland. After the Norman invasions of 1169 and 1171, Ireland was under an alternating level of control from Norman lords and the King of England. Previously, Ireland had seen intermittent warfare between provincial kingdoms over the position of High King. This situation was transformed by intervention in these conflicts by Norman mercenaries and later the English crown. After their successful conquest of England, the Normans turned their attention to Ireland. Ireland was made a Lordship of the King of England and much of its land was seized by Norman barons. With time, Hiberno-Norman rule shrank to a territory known as the Pale, stretching from Dublin to Dundalk. The Hiberno-Norman lords elsewhere in the country became Gaelicised and integrated in Gaelic society.
context_section_description: Pope Adrian IV, the first (and only) English pope, in one of his earliest acts, had already issued a Papal Bull in 1155, giving Henry authority to invade Ireland as a means of curbing ecclesiastical corruption and abuses.  Little contemporary use, however, was made of the Bull Laudabiliter since its text enforced papal suzerainty not only over the island of Ireland but over all islands off the European coast, including Britain, in virtue of the Constantinian donation.  The relevant text reads: "There is indeed no doubt, as thy Highness doth also acknowledge, that Ireland and all other islands which Christ the Sun of Righteousness has illumined, and which have received the doctrines of the Christian faith, belong to the jurisdiction of St. Peter and of the holy Roman Church".  References to Laudabiliter become more frequent in the later Tudor period when the researches of the renaissance humanist scholars cast doubt on the historicity of the Donation of Constantine. The debate was academic, as in 1172 Adrian's successor, Pope Alexander III, ratified the overlordship of Ireland to Henry, without however naming him as King of Ireland.
  Henry landed with a large fleet at Waterford in 1171, becoming the first King of England to set foot on Irish soil. Both Waterford and Dublin were proclaimed Royal Cities. Henry awarded his Irish territories to his youngest son John with the title Dominus Hiberniae ("Lord of Ireland"). When John unexpectedly succeeded his brother as King John, the "Lordship of Ireland" fell directly under the English Crown.
  Henry was happily acknowledged by most of the Irish Kings, who perhaps saw in him a chance to curb the expansion of both Leinster and the Hiberno-Normans. It is unclear if they saw him as a new and soon-to-be-absent high king, or understood the obligations of feudalism. This led to the ratification of the Treaty of Windsor (1175) between Henry and Ruaidhrí. However, with both Diarmaid and Strongbow dead (in 1171 and 1176), Henry back in England and Ruaidhrí unable to curb his nominal vassals, within two years it was not worth the vellum it was inscribed upon. John de Courcy invaded and gained much of east Ulster in 1177, Raymond FitzGerald (also known as Raymond le Gros) had already captured Limerick and much of north Munster, while the other Norman families such as Prendergast, fitz Stephen, fitz Gerald, fitz Henry, de Ridelsford, de Cogan, and le Poer were actively carving out virtual kingdoms for themselves.
caption: Ireland in 1014: a patchwork of rival kingdoms.