Monarchy of Ireland

Henry VIII, became King of Ireland in 1542.

The designation King of Ireland has been used during three periods of Irish history.

In the centuries prior to 1169 Ireland was in the process of becoming a national kingdom under a High King of Ireland. In the aftermath of a Cambro-Norman incursion into Ireland in 1169 Henry II and his successors became "Lord of Ireland". The Treaty of Windsor (1175) in 1175 recognised the last native king as overlord of all Ireland outside Norman control but further Cambro-Norman incursions weakened his authority and after his abdication the office fell dormant.

After Henry VIII made himself head of the Church of England, he also requested and got legislation through the Irish Parliament, in 1541 (effective 1542), naming him King of Ireland and head of the Church of Ireland (which today, both in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, remains a member of the Anglican communion but is no longer an established church like the Church of England or the Church of Scotland). The title "King of Ireland" was then used until 1 January 1801, the effective date of the second Act of Union, which merged Ireland and Great Britain to create the United Kingdom.

After creation of the Irish Free State as a dominion of the British Empire in 1922, the question whether the King reigned in Ireland as "King of the United Kingdom" or as "King of Ireland" took on important constitutional significance that would have later ramifications for the entire British Empire as it was transformed into the Commonwealth of Nations.

King George V continued to reign in Northern Ireland as King of the United Kingdom, because six of the nine counties of the province of Ulster had remained within the UK; but this provided no answer for the Free State. The question was solved in that regard in 1927, when the old Anglo-Irish title "King of Ireland" was revived So the question began to arise in the other dominions of the British Empire — especially after the Statute of Westminster 1931 made them fully independent of Britain — whether the King-Emperor was king of Canada, Australia, etc., because he was head of the British Empire, or because he was head of state of each individual country. At the centre of the issue was the notion of the indivisibility of the Crown, with constitutional experts across the Empire, but especially in London, pondering the question of how the Crown could be indivisible on the head of one sovereign if that person were separately king (or queen regnant) of each division of the one Empire.

This grand question was finally put to bed in 1952, when Elizabeth II was proclaimed Queen separately by the parliaments of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Union of South Africa (since 1961 the Republic of South Africa), Pakistan (became a republic in 1954), and Ceylon (since 1971, the Republic of Sri Lanka). Revival of the title King of Ireland in 1927 thus turned out to be a catalyst for reforming the concept of the indivisibility of the Crown, by elevating the concept of "The Crown" from concrete physicality (the literal crown, as presentation) to abstract principle (the crown as representation). This followed upon the other important development by which the British Empire became the Commonwealth of Nations, namely the provision to allow India to become a republic in 1950 and still remain in the Commonwealth; thus paving the way for then-Princess Elizabeth to become, in 1952, the first "Head of the Commonwealth."

Meanwhile, in 1949, the last link with the monarch was severed in Dublin when Ireland (Éire) (as the Irish Free State had been renamed in 1937) became the Republic of Ireland, thereby leaving the Commonwealth and laying the title "King of Ireland" to rest.

History

The Kings of Ireland to 1607

Gaelic Ireland consisted as few as five and as many as nine main kingdoms, further subdivided into dozens of smaller kingdoms. The primary kingdoms were Connacht, Ailech, Airgíalla, Ulster, Mide, Leinster, Osraige, Munster and Thomond. Up to the end of Gaelic Ireland they continued to fluctuate, expand and contract in size, as well as dissolving entirely or being amalgamated into new entities.

The names of Connacht, Ulster, Leinster and Munster are still in current use, being now applied to the four modern provinces of Ireland. The following is a list of the main Irish kingdoms and their kings.

• List of High Kings of Ireland - historical, legendary and mythical rulers up to 1198.
• Kings of Ailech - divided into Tír Eógain and Tír Conaill in the 12th century.
• Kings of Airgíalla - a federation of nine kingdoms in central Ulster.
• Kings of Breifne - an expansionist kingdom of Connacht, separating Ulster and Leinster.
• Kings of Connacht - all the land west of the Shannon except Thomond; its last king inaugurated 1643, and its dynasty still survivies, among the most ancient in Europe.
• Kings of Dublin - first urban kingdom, founded by the Vikings, annexed by the High Kings.
• Kings of Leinster - Its last de facto king died in 1632.
• Kings of Mide - Ireland's central kingdom, annexed by Connacht in the 11th century.
• Kings of Moylurg - created in the 10th century for a prince of the Sil Muiredaig.
• Kings of Munster - an overkingdom created by the Eóganachta in the early 400s.
• Kings of Osraige - buffer state between Munster and Leinster; dissolved in 1550s.
• Kings of Tara - the most sacred title in Irish history; often confused with "High King."
• Kings of Tir Eogain - a successor kingdom of Ailech; dissolved in 1607.
• Kings of Ulster - properly, Ulster east of the lower and upper Bann;

Kingdom of Ireland (1542-1801)

The title "King of Ireland" was created by an act of the Irish Parliament in 1541, replacing the Lordship of Ireland, which had existed since 1171, with the Kingdom of Ireland. The Crown of Ireland Act established a personal union between the English and Irish crowns, providing that whoever was king of England was to be king of Ireland as well, and so its first holder was King Henry VIII of England.

For a brief period in the seventeenth century, during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, from the impeachment and execution of Charles I to the Restoration of the monarchy in England, there was no 'King of Ireland' in fact, only in name. After the Irish Rebellion of 1641, Irish Catholics, organised in Confederate Ireland recognised Charles I and later, Charles II, as legitimate monarchs, in opposition to the claims of the English Parliament, and signed a formal treaty with the elder Charles. However, in 1649, England became a republic, or "Commonwealth," when the Rump Parliament, victorious in the English Civil War, executed Charles I. The Parliamentarian general, Oliver Cromwell came across the Irish sea to quash any attempt to restore the monarchy by temporarily — though illegally — uniting England, Scotland, and Ireland under one government, styling himself "Lord Protector" of the three kingdoms. (See also Cromwellian conquest of Ireland.) After Cromwell's death in 1658, his son Richard emerged as the leader of this pan-British republic, but he was not competent to maintain it. Parliament at London voted to restore the monarchy, and Charles II returned from exile in France in 1660 to become King of England, Scotland, and Ireland.

When the first Act of Union took effect in 1707, merging England and Scotland into the semi-federal Kingdom of Great Britain, the personal union between the Irish, Scottish, and English crowns became a personal union between the Irish and British crowns. The Kingdom of Ireland was then merged to Great Britain on 1 January 1801 when the second Act of Union took effect, creating the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (since 1922, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland).

Irish Free State (1927-1936)

Main article: Monarchy in the Irish Free State

File:Dail1.jpg

Leinster House, decorated for the visit of King George V and Queen Mary in 1911.
Within a decade it was the seat of the Oireachtas of the Irish Free State.

Twenty-six of Ireland's thirty-two counties left the United Kingdom in 1922 (the six northeastern counties of Ireland opted to remain British), as the Irish Free State (renamed Éire in 1937), a self-governing dominion of the British Empire. As a dominion, the Free State was a constitutional monarchy with the British monarch as its head of state. However, until 1927, King George V was still formally styled "King of the United Kingdom". It was five years before the Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act 1927 revived the title "King of Ireland" as a separate position to the British crown. As before 1801, the two crowns existed in a personal union.

In conjunction with the change, the Free State achieved greater autonomy within the British Empire. For example, the British cabinet could no longer advise the King on matters pertinent to the Irish Free State but the king, through his governor general (after 1937, through the President of Ireland) took the advice of his Irish prime ministers. The Free State was also granted its own Great Seal and began to sign treaties in its own right, instead of through Britain.

That last item — the right of British dominions to sign treaties on their own behalf without the imperial oversight of London — dates to the First World War and the insistence of the then-Dominion of Canada that she be represented at the Versailles Peace Talks and sign the treaty under her own name, though within the context of the British Empire. Canada had already managed to reserve this right to herself in an earlier treaty negotiation with the United States. Canadian insistence on the right to sign the Treaty of Versailles independently effectively secured this right to all British dominions, including post-bellum dominions like the Irish Free State.

1936-1949

Main article: Irish head of state from 1936-1949

From 1936 to 1949 the role of the King of Ireland in the Irish state was greatly reduced and ambiguous. An amendment to the Free State constitution in 1936 all but eliminated all of the King's official duties but one. Under the External Relations Act of the same year he continued to represent the Free State in international affairs. This purely external role continued when the new Constitution of Ireland was introduced in 1937.

The position of King of Ireland ceased with the passage of the Republic of Ireland Act, which came into force in April 1949. This act, as the name suggested, declared the state to be a republic. The Crown of Ireland Act was eventually repealed in the Republic of Ireland by the Statute Law Revision (Pre-Union Irish Statutes) Act, 1962.

The monarchy continues in Northern Ireland, which remains a province of the United Kingdom. The Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland since 1952, Elizabeth II, numbers an assortment of pre-Norman High Kings of Ireland among her ancestors, through her mother, the late Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother.

List of Lords, Kings and Queens of Ireland (Non-Native)

1171-1541

• Prince Henry (I), Lord of Ireland (1171 – 1189) (King of England as Henry II, and Duke of Normandy, from 1154)
• Prince Richard (I), (1189 - 1199) (King of England as Richard I "Lion-Heart")
• Prince John, (1199 - 1216) (In England, King John; in Normandy, Duke John; etc.)
• Prince Henry (II), (1216 - 1272) (King of England as Henry III)
• Prince Edward (I), (1272 - 1307) (King of England as Edward I)
• Prince Edward (II), (1307 - 1327) (King of England as Edward II)
• Prince Edward (III), (1327 - 1377) (King of England as Edward III)
• Prince Richard (II), (1377 - 1399) (King of England as Richard II)
• Prince Henry (III), (1399 - 1413) (King of England as Henry IV)
• Prince Henry (IV), (1413 - 1422) (King of England as Henry V)
• Prince Henry (V), (1422 - 1461 and 1470 - 1471) (King of England as Henry VI)
• Prince Edward (IV), (1461 - 1470 and 1471 - 1483) (King of England as Edward IV)
• Prince Edward (V), (1483) (King of England as Edward V)
• Prince Richard (III), (1483 - 1485) (King of England as Richard III)
• Prince Henry (VI), (1485 - 1509) (King of England as Henry VII)
• Prince Henry (VII), (1509 – 1542) (King of England as Henry VIII)

1541-1801

• Henry VIII and I, King of Ireland (1542 – 1547; previously Prince Henry (VII), Lord of Ireland, 1509 – 1542. (Although universally known as "Henry VIII," he was technically Henry I in Ireland, as the first of the English kings Henry to be King of Ireland; and the same principle applies to his successors until 1801.)
• Edward VI and I, 1547 - 1553 (Edward VI of England, I of Ireland)
• Jane, 1553
• Mary I, 1553 - 1558
• Elizabeth I, 1558 - 1603
• James VI & I, 1603 - 1625 (James VI of Scotland, I of England and Ireland)
• Charles I, 1625 - 1649
• Charles II, 1660 - 1685
• James VII & II, 1685 - 1688
• William III, II & I, 1689 - 1702 & Mary II, 1689 - 1694 (William III of England and the Netherlands, II of Scotland, I of Ireland; and Mary II of England, Scotland and Ireland).
• Anne, 1702 - 1714
• George I, 1714 - 1727
• George II, 1727 - 1760
• George III (1760–1801)

1801-1927

Kings and Queens of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, which see.

The first of these was King George III, (1801-1820). The last was George V, King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (and Emperor of India, etc.), 1910-1927; thereafter, King of Ireland, 1927-1936, and King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

1927-1949

King George VI, the last King of Ireland

• George V (1927–1936)
• Edward VIII (1936)
• George VI (1936–1949)

Kings George I, II, and III had reigned as "King of Ireland"; a constitutional change had occurred and Georges III & IV had reigned as "King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland." As the governments of Ireland and the United Kingdom were separate from 1922 and the royal titles from 1927, it might be supposed that George V, once again called "King of Ireland", should be numbered "IV" as the 4th of that name to be "King of Ireland." This would be incorrect, however; regnal numerals are always fully cumulative and do not depend on the precise wording of actual titles; if they did, George III would have suddenly become "George I of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland" at that constitutional change.

Edward VIII was the first monarch to acceed to the British throne with the Northern Irish designation attached to his title. His brother, George VI was the first actually so crowned, and the last to be crowned King of Ireland.

George VI's daughter, Elizabeth II, currently Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, has in common with the former American presidents John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan that all three of them are descendants of the pre-Norman Dál gCais kings of Munster in southwestern Ireland. In the Queen's case, her descent from Brian Boru and other native Irish kings is through her mother, the late Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother.

See also

• British monarchy
• List of British monarchs
• Style of the British Sovereign
• History of Ireland
• The King of Ireland's Son — a novel published in 1962
• Victor Emmanuel III of Italy