biography
| name: |
O'Connor, Rory or Roderick (Ruaidhrí Ua Conchobair)
|
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (c.1116–98)
|
| biography:
| The last high king of Ireland (1166–86) and king of Connaught (1156–86). The son of Turlough O'Connor (1088–1156), he vanquished the land of Teffia, but suffered reverses at Athlone and Ardee (1159). Taking advantage of the weakness of the N, he went to Dublin and was inaugurated high king of all Ireland (1166). He made an annual endowment of 10 cows to Armagh for teaching poor scholars. He called two important assemblies in 1167 and 1168 to adopt laws and determine justice. His ascendancy was brief, however, for his rivalry with Dermot MacMurrough persuaded the latter to call Richard de Clare (Strongbow) and his Anglo-Norman forces to his aid (1171). They defeated O'Connor and routed Dublin; when Henry II reasserted his authority over his vassals in 1172, O'Connor and the remaining Irish chiefs were forced by the Treaty of Windsor (1175) to acknowledge Henry as king and accept the infiltration of the English into Ireland. O'Connor remained king of Connaught and nominal high king, but his power declined and he retired to a monastery before his death. |
|
|
