page_title: Guðrøðr Óláfsson
section_title: Aligned with the English in Ireland
hierarchical_section_title: Guðrøðr Óláfsson / Aligned with the English in Ireland
caption_attribution_description: English: Photo of the mannequin of Affreca de Courcy at Carrickfergus Castle. Original caption: She's looking toward the Isle of Man.
context_page_description: Guðrøðr Óláfsson was a twelfth-century ruler of the kingdoms of Dublin and the Isles. Guðrøðr was a son of Óláfr Guðrøðarson, King of the Isles and Affraic, daughter of Fergus, Lord of Galloway. Throughout his career, Guðrøðr battled rival claimants to the throne, permanently losing about half of his realm to a rival dynasty in the process. Although dethroned for nearly a decade, Guðrøðr clawed his way back to regain control of a partitioned kingdom, and proceeded to project power into Ireland. Although originally opposed to the English invasion of Ireland, Guðrøðr adeptly recognised the English ascendancy in the Irish Sea region and aligned himself with the English. All later kings of the Crovan dynasty descended from Guðrøðr.
  In the last year of his father's reign, Guðrøðr was absent at the court of Ingi Haraldsson, King of Norway, forging closer ties with the Kingdom of Norway. When Óláfr was assassinated by rival members of the Crovan dynasty in 1153, Guðrøðr returned to the Isles, overthrew his usurping cousins, and seized the throne for himself.
context_section_description: According to the Chronicle of Northampton, Guðrøðr attended the coronation of Henry II's teenage son, Henry, in 1170. The participation of monarchs such as Guðrøðr and William I, King of Scotland in the ceremony partly illustrates the imperial aspect of the Plantagenet authority in the British Isles. Guðrøðr's close relations with the English Crown may have revolved around ensuring royal protection from the English invaders of Ireland–especially considering his former control of Dublin. With the defeat of the Dubliners at the hands of English adventurers, and the ongoing entrenchment of the English throughout Ireland itself, the Crovan dynasty found itself surrounded by a threatening, rising new power in the Irish Sea zone. Despite his original opposition to the English in Dublin, Guðrøðr did not take long to realign himself with this new power, as exemplified through the marital alliance between his daughter, Affrica, and one of the most powerful incoming Englishmen, John de Courcy.
  In 1177, John led an invasion of Ulaid (an area roughly encompassing what is today County Antrim and County Down). He reached Down (modern day Downpatrick), drove off Ruaidrí Mac Duinn Sléibe, King of Ulaid, consolidated his conquest, and ruled with a certain amount of independence for about a quarter of a century. Although the precise date of the marriage between John and Affrica is unknown, the union itself may well have attributed to his stunning successes in Ireland. Certainly, decades later in the reign of Guðrøðr's son and successor, Rǫgnvaldr, John received significant military support from the Crovan dynasty, and it is not improbable that Guðrøðr himself supplied similar assistance. In the 1190s, John also received military assistance from Guðrøðr's kinsman Donnchad mac Gilla Brigte, Earl of Carrick. Like Guðrøðr, Donnchad was a grandson of Fergus, and it possible that John's marriage to Affrica accounts for Donnchad's cooperation with him.
  Although the promise of maritime military support could well have motivated John to align himself with Guðrøðr, there may have been a more significant aspect to their alliance. The rulers of Ulaid and those of Mann had a bitter past-history between them, and it is possible that the binding of John to the Crovan dynasty was actually the catalyst of his assault upon the Ulaid. In fact, Guðrøðr formalised his own marriage to Findguala in 1176/1177, and it was by this union that Guðrøðr bound his own dynasty with the Meic Lochlainn, another traditional foe of the Ulaid. Another contributing factor to the alliance between Guðrøðr and John may have been the Meic Lochlainn's loss of the Cenél nEógain kingship to the rival Uí Néill dynast Áed Méith in 1177. The latter certainly clashed with John before the end of the century, and the strife between the Uí Néill and Meic Lochlainn continued on for decades. In any case, the unions meant that John was protected on his right flank by Guðrøðr, through whom John shared a common interest with the Meic Lochlainn, situated on his left flank. John would have almost certainly attempted to use such alignments to his advantage, whilst Guðrøðr may have used John's campaigning against the Ulaid as a means of settling old scores. The marriage alliance between Guðrøðr and John partly exemplifies the effect that the English conquest of Ireland had upon not only Irish politics but that of the Isles as well.
caption: Mannequin of Guðrøðr's daughter, Affrica, at Carrickfergus Castle. The mannequin is looking through the window of the castle's great hall.
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