There were three major events in western history in this year. It was not a year of seismic changes culturally,socially, militarily or otherwise; nothing changed on a global scale. It just happens that one of the events occurred where I am sitting now.
On the 26th of October, the Byzantine Emperor, Basil, earned himself a new nick-name and a reputation as a hard man.
In his attempts to subdue the area now known as Bulgaria he surrounded an army of Bulgars on the banks of the Strymon. Not content with the crudeness of simply killing, them he had the eyes of 15,000 men put out. Basil has apparently been described as “humane and benevolent” and it’s easy to see why; he spared a single eye on one man out of every 100 so the whole lot could find their way home. Bless him.
Samuel, the Bulgarian ruler unsurprisingly went apoplectic, had a stroke and died.
February 14th brought with it a new Holy Roman Emperor.
Henry came from an aristocratic Bavarian family and had intended to join the priesthood when Emperor Otto III of Germany went and died. Supported by Bavarians, Franks, Saxons, Thuringians, Swabians and Lotharingians he went for the job. Although he CV was thin, he must have come across well in the interview. He became the symbolic figurehead of a society which was highly fragmented and constantly on the verge of civil war.
Henry travelled with the wife he picked up at some point along the way (Cunigunde was the daughter of the Count of Luxembourg) to Rome for official Papal sanction.
Pope Benedict VIII met the couple on the steps of St Peter’s and after receiving the customary assurance that Henry was the man to defend the Catholic Church, he invited them in. The Pope placed a golden orb surmounted by a crucifix (to signify the rule of religion over the world – strange for a society that, we are taught, said the earth was flat) in the Bavarian’s hand and that was it – job done.
Henry went on to bloodily suppress various military actions, to take a vow of chastity along with his wife and, of course, to be sainted.
Really bad drawing of Brian Boru's Well, Castle Avenue
This happened roughly where I am right now.
The Broader Scene Setting
Vikings had controlled Dublin since 836AD and had developed by 1000AD quite a legacy and heritage in Ireland. Although a major city, Dublin was not seen as a capital in today’s sense.
Against the background of the Norsemen’s conquest of Northern Europe, Irish Vikings had made many advances towards a more unified rule of the island by utilising the unstable nature of Irish alliances and heated animosities to lessen the Irish defensive capabilities against the Viking raids. Native antipathy towards this divide-and-conquer scheme ran high.
Brian Boru appropriated this feeling and united the Irish against the Vikings and Leinstermen. In 999AD he led the force that slaughtered 4000 of them at Glenmama. Lovely.
Getting Closer
Fast forward 14 years to Brian Boru’s home, at Kincora in Clare, where an emissary from King Sitric of Dublin makes himself unwelcome by trading insults over the Glenmama massacre and committing a murder. In the heel of the hunt, on returning, Brian Boru decides he has had enough of this. His first act is to send his wife, Gormlaith, away. Hardly a surprise, considering she was Sitric’s mother and had married Boru later.
Brian Boru marches on Dublin with army, while his son, Murrough, marches with his. Along the way many more Irishmen join, including Malachy, King of the Northern half of Ireland (he leaves before the battle anyway, so I wouldn’t worry too much about him).
Sitric, in the meantime, being the possessor of great intuition, has smelled trouble and begun reinforcing his defences through his alliances with Norsemen from Scandinavia, Denmark (yeah, I know – it is geographically separate though), Wales, Scotland, The Hebrides and Shetlands, Cornwall and France.
Here We Go! Bring The Ruckus!
The united Irish army starts its campaign by blockading Dublin at Kilmainham in September 1013. Some indistinct time later they decide on a more direct (read: violent) course of action and undertake some grade-A raping and pillaging in Fingal. As a nice little human touch in the midst of this, Brian Boru sends away his youngest son (Donncha, who was the only child Boru had with Gormlaith) so he would not have to partake in fighting his half-brother Sitric, who was married to Donncha’s half-sister, Emer. Brian Boru himself, it seems, would have had no qualms about whacking the head off his stepson, though, given half a chance.
Knowing it is frowned upon for Christian armies to do glorious and manly battle on Good Friday the Vikings make the obvious decision. Cue, a now 80 year-old, Brian Boru leading his men into battle on Friday the 23rd of April 1014 at Tomhar’s Wood (where Hedigan’s pub The Brian Boru House is now in Phibsboro). The upshot of this is that 4,00 Irish die, including Brian Boru himself, and 15,000 Norsemen, over a very gory and bloody half hour.
Thoroughly licked, most of the remaining Norsemen leg it to Howth to await rescue. Standing firmly by his pagan convictions, Sitric becomes a Christian. Malachy, who ran away before the battle, becomes the Irish High King.
One Last Note
There are several possibilities in relation to Brian Boru’s death. All of them are fairly fanciful for an 80 year-old monarch, when a simple fall at that age might be too much even for 21st century medicine.
He may have been killed in his tent, while praying of course, by having his head cleaved open by a Viking called Brodir who is then lynched by Boru’s men. He may also have fought Brodir himself, with each inflicting mortals wounds on the other. Or, my favourite, Brian Boru, the octogenarian, may have waded into battle killing many Vikings indiscriminately before being felled himself, like some ancient redwood in a storm.
Bibliography
Chronicle of the World, Ed. Derrick Mercer, Longman, 1989
The Meadow of the Bull, Dennis McIntyre, Self Published, 1987
This article was posted by Ronan McDonnell on
Sunday, December 7th, 2008 at
06:47.
It is archived in Dublin, History and tagged Bulgaria, Clontarf, Dublin, History, Holy Roman Emperor, violence.
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