Kingdom of Ireland
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2008-07-16T07:27:29Z
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{{dablink|This article is about the Irish kingdom existing from 1541 to 1800. For other Irish kingdoms, see [[Kingdoms of Ireland]] and [[King of Ireland]]. For other uses of "Ireland", see [[Ireland (disambiguation)]].}}
{{Infobox Former Country
|native_name = Ríocht na hÉireann
|conventional_long_name = Kingdom of Ireland
|common_name = Ireland
|continent = Europe
|region = British Isles
|country = Ireland
|year_start = 1541
|year_end = 1801
|life_span = [[1541]] – [[1651]]<br>[[1659]] – [[1801]]
|date_start =
|date_end = January 1
|event_start = Act of Parliament
|event_end = [[Act of Union 1800|Act of Union]]
|p1 = Lordship of Ireland
|flag_p1 = Flag_of_Lordship_of_Ireland.png
|p2 = Gaelic Ireland
|flag_p2 = Flag_President_of_Ireland.svg
|s1 = Confederate Ireland
|flag_s1 = Flag_of_Leinster.svg
|s2 = Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland
|flag_s2 =Flag_of_the_Commonwealth_(1649-1651).svg
|s3 = United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
|flag_s3 = Flag of the United Kingdom.svg
|image_flag = St Patrick's saltire3.svg
|image_coat = Coat_of_arms_of_Ireland.svg
|symbol_type = Coat of arms<sup>2</sup>
|image_map = LocationIslandIreland.png
|image_map_caption =
|national_motto =
|capital = [[Dublin]]
|common_languages = [[Irish language|Irish]], [[English language|English]]
|government_type = Monarchy
|title_leader = [[King of Ireland|King]]<sup>3</sup>
|leader1 = [[Henry VIII of England|Henry VIII]]
|year_leader1 = 1542-1547
|leader2 = [[George III of the United Kingdom|George III]]
|year_leader2 = 1760-1801
|title_deputy = [[Chief Secretary for Ireland|Chief Secretary]]
|deputy1 = Matthew Lock
|year_deputy1 = 1660
|deputy2 = [[Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh|Viscount Castlereagh]]
|year_deputy2 = 1798-1801
|legislature = Parliament of Ireland
|house1 = Irish House of Lords
|house2 = Irish House of Commons
|stat_year1 =
|stat_area1 =
|stat_pop1 =
|currency =
|footnotes = <sup>1</sup>From [[1642]], overlapping control with [[Confederate Ireland]].<br/><sup>2</sup> No official flag is known to exist for the Kingdom of Ireland. Numerous unofficial flags were used throughout its history, including: 1. ''Azure, a harp Or, stringed Argent'', based on the [[Coat of arms of Ireland|coat of arms]] adopted in 1541 and much later to become the [[President of Ireland|presidential standard]]; 2. ''Vert, a harp Or, stringed Argent'', the [[Leinster]] flag, used from the mid-17th century; and 3. ''Argent a saltire Gules'', [[Saint Patrick's Flag]], from 1783. The latter was integrated into the Union Flag, the first flag officially used to represent Ireland. However, the second appears to have been the most popular and its [[Green Ensign|use as a naval jack]] is debated as to whether it had official status or not.<br/><sup>3</sup> Represented by a [[Lord Lieutenant of Ireland]].
}}
The '''Kingdom of Ireland''' ([[Irish language|Irish]]: ''Ríocht na hÉireann'') was the name given to the Irish state from [[1541]], by the [[Crown of Ireland Act 1542]] of the [[Parliament of Ireland]]. The new Monarch replaced the [[Lordship of Ireland]], which had been created in [[1171]]. King [[Henry VIII of England|Henry VIII]] thus became the first [[King of Ireland]] since 1169. The Kingdom of Ireland ceased to exist when Ireland joined with [[Great Britain]] to form the [[United Kingdom]] in 1801.
==Reason for creation==
The [[Pope]] [[Adrian IV]], an Englishman, had granted the Norman-English [[monarchy]] the Island of [[Ireland]] as a [[feudal]] possession in 1155, by the bull ([[Laudabiliter]]), which enabled the English [[monarchy]] to act as the ruler of Ireland. This was confirmed by his successor [[Pope Alexander III]] in 1172, but nominally [[Ireland]] remained a [[papal overlordship]]. With the excommunication from the church of the king of [[England]], [[Henry VIII of England|Henry VIII]], in [[1533]], the constitutional position of the English rule in Ireland became uncertain. Henry had broken away from the [[Pope|Holy See]] and declared himself the head of the newly formed [[Church of England]] in order to procure a divorce, which the pope, [[Pope Clement VII|Clement VII]], refused. As a result, Henry could no longer afford to recognize the [[Roman Catholic Church|Roman Catholic Church's]] nominal sovereignty over Ireland. As a solution to this, Henry was proclaimed King of [[Ireland]] by the [[Crown of Ireland Act 1542]] passed by the [[Parliament of Ireland|Irish Parliament]].
However the new kingdom was not recognized by the Catholic monarchies in Europe. A [[papal bull]] of 1555 named [[Mary I of England|Mary I]] as Queen of Ireland, thereby recognizing the personal link to the crown of England in [[canon law]].
In this fashion, the [[King of Ireland|throne of Ireland]] became occupied by the reigning [[King of England]], thus placing the newly-formed Kingdom of Ireland in [[personal union]] with the [[Kingdom of England]]. In [[1603]] the throne of England became occupied by the [[King of Scotland]], which eventually led to a [[Kingdom of Great Britain]] in [[1707]], when the parliaments of both kingdoms were combined into one sitting at the seat of the English parliament at [[Westminster]] in London. In [[1801]], the Irish and British parliaments were similarly combined producing the [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland]].
==Lord Deputy==
The Kingdom of Ireland was governed by an executive under the control of a ''Lord Deputy'', which when held by senior nobles such as [[Thomas Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Sussex|Thomas Radcliffe]] was elevated to ''Lord Lieutenant''. In the absence of a Lord Deputy, lords justices ruled the part of Ireland under English occupation. While some Irishmen held the post, all lord deputies from 23 July 1534, when [[William Skeffington]] took office for the second time, were English noblemen.
[[Image:CrownIrl2.JPG|left|thumb|300px|<br>'''Royal Coat of Arms after the [[Act of Union 1800]]''' <br><small>Displayed over the 19th century [[King's Inns]] in Dublin. These arms of dominion are similar to the royal [[coat of arms|arms]] before the union inasmuch as the arms of [[Ireland]] (the harp) form one quarter of the shield with the remaining quarters referring to the king's other realms: [[England]], [[Scotland]] and [[Hanover]]</small>.]]
The kingdom was legislated for by the bicameral Parliament of Ireland, made up of the [[Irish House of Lords|House of Lords]] and the [[Irish House of Commons|House of Commons]], and which almost always met in [[Dublin]]. The powers of the Irish parliament were restricted by a series of laws, notably [[Poynings' Law]] of [[1492]]. Roman Catholics and later [[Presbyterians]] were for much of its later history excluded from membership of the Irish parliament. In the eighteenth century parliament met in a new, purpose-designed parliament house (the first purpose-designed two-chamber parliament house in the world) in [[College Green]] in the heart of Dublin.
==Grattan's Parliament==
Some restrictions were repealed in [[1782]] in what came to be known as the [[Constitution of 1782]]. Parliament in this period came to be known as [[Grattan's Parliament]], after one of the principal Irish political opposition leaders of the period, [[Henry Grattan]]. In 1788-89 a Regency crisis was caused when [[George III]] went insane, and Grattan wanted to appoint his son (later [[George IV]]) as Regent of Ireland; however the king recovered before this could be effected.
==Union of kingdoms==
By the [[Act of Union 1800|Act of Union]] of the Irish Parliament, the Kingdom of Ireland merged in [[1801]] with the [[Kingdom of Great Britain]] to form the [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland]]. The Irish Parliament ceased to exist, though the executive, presided over by the Lord Lieutenant, remained in place until [[1922]]. The Act was preceded by the failed [[Irish Rebellion of 1798|rebellion]] and [[France|French]] invasion of [[1798]], and was the subject of much controversy, involving much bribery of the Irish MPs to ensure its passage. {{Fact|date=December 2007}}
==Irish Free State 1922==
In [[1922]], 26 counties left the [[United Kingdom]] and formed the [[Irish Free State]]. Under the [[1922 Constitution|Irish Free State Constitution]], the King became King ''in'' Ireland. This was changed by the Royal Titles Act, [[1927]], by which the King explicitly became king of all his dominions in their own right, becoming fully King ''of'' Ireland instead. Though [[Kevin O'Higgins]], [[Vice-President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State|Vice-President of the Executive Council]] (i.e., deputy prime minister), did suggest resurrecting the 'Kingdom of Ireland' as a [[Monarchy in the Irish Free State|dual monarchy]] to link [[Northern Ireland]] and the [[Irish Free State]], with the King of Ireland being crowned in a public ceremony in [[Phoenix Park]] in [[Dublin]], the idea was abandoned after O'Higgins' assassination by anti-[[Anglo-Irish Treaty|Treaty]] [[Irish Republican Army (1922-1969)|IRA]] men in 1927.
An Act of 1542 that confirmed Henry's kingdom and its link to the English crown, and which had mistakenly been left on the statute books, was repealed in the [[Republic of Ireland]] in 2007 as part of a wholesale review of historic Irish law.[http://www.taoiseach.gov.ie/eng/index.asp?locID=404&docID=3135][http://www.oireachtas.ie/viewdoc.asp?fn=/documents/bills28/bills/2007/0507/document1.htm]
==References==
{{reflist}}
<br/>{{Irish states since 1171}}
<!--Categories-->
[[Category:Former Countries in Ireland]]
[[Category:Northern Ireland]]
[[Category:History of Ireland]]
<!--Other languages-->
[[ca:Regne d'Irlanda]]
[[de:Königreich Irland]]
[[es:Reino de Irlanda]]
[[fr:Royaume d'Irlande]]
[[ko:아일랜드 왕국]]
[[it:Regno d'Irlanda]]
[[nl:Koninkrijk Ierland]]
[[ja:アイルランド王国]]
[[no:Kongeriket Irland]]
[[fi:Irlannin kuningaskunta]]
[[sv:Kungariket Irland]]