10 14 BRIAN BORU & THE BATTLE FOR IRELAND
MORGAN LLYWELYN
Contents Author's Note page 8
Foreword The Rt. Hon. Conor O’Brien
9
Introduction 11
Prologue: Morning 21
Chapter 1 Ireland
23
Chapter 2 Ireland in the Tenth Century
37
Chapter 3 Vikings
64
Chapter 4 The Principals
80
Chapter 5 A Spark in Dry Tinder
101
Chapter 6 The Northern Conspiracy
118
Chapter 7 Call to Arms
129
Chapter 8 The Dragons Are Coming
148
Chapter 9 The Week Before
160
Chapter 10 The Battleground
178
Chapter 11 Battle Morning:
Sunrise, 23 April 1014
192
Chapter 12 Attack!
201
Chapter 13 The End of the Day
215
Chapter 14 sunset
223
Chapter 15 Afterword
234
‘Kincora’ 245
Select Bibliography 249
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INTRODUCTION
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1014 brian boru & the battle for ireland
3 The Battle Scene in Dublin (one page)
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PROLOGUE: MORNING
B
attle morning! A warrior spirit thrills to those words. This day might see the greatest battle of all, the one which a man will remember for the rest of his life. He can tell the story over and over again to his grandchildren and warm his cold bones by the fire of their admiration. He may even become a legend. Battle morning! Few had slept well the night before. Even the most experienced campaigners were restless, as men are restless when there is a storm gathering and the air is heavy with foreboding. New recruits had listened eagerly to the talk of the veterans, trying to grasp clues as to the future. But around the campfires the seasoned fighters had talked about the food or the weather or the long march they had just endured. Hardly any spoke of their women at home and none mentioned their children.The impending battle was not discussed by men who knew they had little control over its outcome. Awake before first light, they lay on their backs and stared at the sky, 21
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waiting for the stars to fade. Wondering who would be alive to observe the next appearance of the stars. Advance scouts had been reporting to the command camp all night. The tall old man who had not slept listened to them with folded arms, assessing the information they brought. Sometimes he nodded. Sometimes he merely raised his head and turned a serious face towards the east, visualising. He carried it all in his head as he had carried everything in his head for so many years – the dreams, the plans, the strategies. All in one head, which was too valuable to risk in battle now, according to his sons. His eyes burned with exhaustion. He passed one hand over them, a huge, still-powerful hand – had it not killed an opponent in single combat just the year before? He would defer to his sons’ wishes because it was time to let the burden of responsibility pass to them, but he would keep his sword by his side. Tomorrow, when the victory was won, he could sleep. The April sky turned a translucent green with the coming of the dawn. The date was Good Friday, 23 April in the Year of Our Lord 1014. The most ferocious battle ever fought in Ireland was about to begin.
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CHAPTER ONE
Ireland
I
n 1014 Ireland did not think of itself as a nation or as a political entity. The concept of ‘nationhood’ was unknown. Poets referred to the land of many tribes as Erin, after an ancient goddess named Eriu. The inhabitants called themselves the Gael, or the Scoti. On maps drawn by the geographers of antiquity the island west of Britain was called Hibernia, from the Latin word hibernus, meaning ‘wintry’. The Gael of Ireland belonged to one of several branches descended from a passionate and energetic warrior race whom the early Greeks identified as the Keltoi, or Celts. As with most things concerning the Celts, there is controversy about their origins, even about their right to be called a race. The Celtic home23
1014 brian boru & the battle for ireland
land is described as extending from Bohemia in Germany to Silesia in southwestern Poland. The majority of modern anthropologists trace the Celts through their linguistic ties back to the Indo-Europeans, people of the steppes north of the Black Sea who migrated throughout continental Europe before the third millennium BC and became one of the foundations of western civilisation. Archaeological studies indicate that the Gael reached Ireland by sea around the end of the Bronze Age. They brought iron weapons with them, enabling them to supplant the Bronze Age inhabitants who, in turn, had replaced Neolithic Man. At first the settlers probably intermarried with the surviving natives. There were no more incomers. For over a thousand years the Gael held undisputed sway over the land of Ireland. Great courage, a love of beauty, and a reverence for the natural world were amongst the qualities they admired and pursued. This was the culture that eventually produced the Book of Kells, the Tara Brooch, thousands of other works of art, and the Brehon law, which was described in 1987 by the Rt Honourable John J Flaherty, Chief Justice of Pennsylvania as ‘the most humane and realistic legal system ever devised’. But more of that later. From their point of view, the Gael had found paradise 24
Ireland
at the edge of the Atlantic. Their island, which is about the size of the American state of Maine, was rich in the natural resources needed to support a pastoral, seminomadic lifestyle. The movement of glaciers during the Ice Age had carved the island into a fertile central plain ringed by coastal highlands. Although in the same latitude as Labrador, Ireland benefited from mild southwesterly winds and the warm waters of the Gulf Stream, which created a temperate climate. The island as a whole was a near-wilderness of timeless beauty. Much of the land was covered by expanses of mixed forest, primarily oak, but also hazel, ash, rowan, holly and yew. Thus there was an endless supply of timber to build shelter and to fuel fires. Field and forest abounded with game, rivers and lakes swarmed with fish, and the coasts provided a wide variety of shellfish. There also were deposits of gold, silver and copper to create the spectacular personal ornaments beloved of the Gael. With everything they needed provided by the island on which they lived, the Gael had little inclination to venture further afield. A few did turn to piracy, harrying British sea lanes and occasionally seizing slaves; Saint Patrick was first brought to Ireland as a slave. For the most part, the Gael lived much as their warrior forebears had done on the European continent. Surrounded by 25
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water on all sides, Ireland was isolated for many centuries. The male population had no one to hone their battle skills upon but one another. This they did, with gusto. The tribes fought each other until battle became both sport and art, a way of life by which they defined themselves. During the first millennium after Christ, Ireland contained between 100 and 150 semi-autonomous petty kingdoms, each made up of several tribes. Every tribe had its own chieftain; every kingdom had its own king who was elected from amongst the suitable members of the most powerful tribe. These petty kings had the right to demand tribute, a form of tax which usually consisted of cattle and warriors, from the tribes in their territory. They raised armies to fight other kings for territorial conquest, for the enforcement of hegemony, or to plunder and weaken a rival kingdom. The size and prosperity of the individual kingdoms waxed and waned with the fortunes of war. The victors were immortalised by the poets. To add to the divisiveness, the island consisted of five separate and semi-autonomous provinces: Ulster (Uladh in Irish) in the north; Leinster (Laighin) in the east; Connacht (Connachta) in the west; Munster (Mumhan) in the south; and in the centre, Meath (MĂdhe), the 26
Ireland
royal province. These were ruled by provincial kings to whom the petty kings in their territory owed tribute. The provincial kings, in turn, owed tribute to an overlord known as the Árd Rí, or high king, whose traditional seat was at Tara in Meath. Tara today is a long grassy ridge often occupied by grazing sheep. From its elevation on a clear day one can see mountains in each of the other four provinces, a kingly view indeed. In no stage of Irish history had the term ‘high king’ implied monarchy. No high king governed all of Ireland. The Árd Rí reigned but did not rule. His subjects were the provincial kings who owed him tribute and courted his patronage to support their individual power. This arrangement likewise controlled the downward dispersion of property through petty kings and clan chieftains. Below the nobles were the freemen, and on the lowest rung of the ladder, the slaves, most of whom were captives taken in war. Slavery was not a permanent condition. A slave could buy his or her freedom, and many did. The office of king, of whatever rank, was elective. In the case of the provincial kings and the high king it was restricted to the princely class, which included anyone whose great-grandfather had been a king. Male members of this class were obliged to undergo a very specific 27
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training, both mental and physical. The eldest son of a king did not automatically inherit his father’s role. So long as there was an eligible member of his family who had the support of the other tribes, that person might accede to the kingship if he was of the age, strength, and character to suit the office. Thus the method of choosing a king was not fully one of merit, nor fully elective, nor fully hereditary, but a combination of all three. In the case of the Árd Rí, the family from which he came was of paramount importance. For centuries the high king was elected from either the northern or southern branches of the Uí Néill, the family with the longest history of high kingship. Until one man changed that. The Gael developed a highly stratified society conforming to an elaborate system known as Brehon law. Brehons were judges, members of the intellectual class that included teachers, healers, and bards. Bards were highly revered – a poet was considered the equal of a prince, a gifted satirist could topple a king. Brehons, as interpreters of the law, were concerned with every aspect of tribal life, from governing the election of kings to writing statutes concerning beekeeping. Under Brehon law women had a degree of equality with men. Whether single or married they could 28
Ireland
inherit property and conduct its usage. The importance of women’s work was shown by the value assigned to their implements: a needle used in embroidery was valued at an ounce of silver, or part ownership of a yearling heifer. In case of divorce, which was common in early Ireland, a woman’s dowry might be returned to her. Polygamy was accepted if all parties consented, although in certain circumstances, such as incest, adultery was punishable by death. There was no such thing as illegitimacy: any act which resulted in a child was considered a marriage. There were no orphans. If a child’s parents were dead, he or she was fostered by other members of the tribe. Because the pre-Christian Gael had no written language, their history was painstakingly memorised by their bards over a period as long as twenty years. Poetry in its primitive form was a chant of pure emotion, speaking directly to the spirit. Captured in poetry like a fly in amber, Ireland’s history and genealogies were transmitted from one generation to the next virtually intact. In the sixth century, Christianity arrived in Ireland together with its concomitant literacy. The new faith was superimposed on the ancient druidic tradition without a substantial struggle. Ireland underwent an 29