Lordship of Ireland The Lordship of Ireland ( ) was a period of feudal rule in Ireland between 1177 and 1542 under the King of England , styled as " Lord of Ireland " . The lordship was created as a Papal possession following the Norman invasion of Ireland in 1169 – 71 . As the Lord of Ireland was also King of England , he was represented locally by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland . Ostensibly , the lordship extended throughout all of Ireland . However , in reality , the king ' s rule only ever extended to parts of the island . Areas under English rule expanded and retreated over time . Some areas remained separate and outside English rule until the 16th century . The fluid political situation and feudal system allowed a significant amount of practical autonomy for the Hiberno - Norman nobility , who carved earldoms out for themselves and had almost as much authority as some of the native Gaelic kings . The period was brought to a close by the creation of the Kingdom of Ireland in 1542 . Background . The authority of the Lordship of Ireland ' s government was seldom extended throughout the island of Ireland at any time during its existence but was restricted to the Pale around Dublin , and some provincial towns , including Cork , Limerick , Waterford , Wexford and their hinterlands . It owed its origins to the decision of a Leinster dynast , Diarmait Mac Murchada ( Diarmuid MacMorrough ) , to bring in a Norman knight based in Wales , Richard de Clare , 2nd Earl of Pembroke ( alias ' Strongbow ' ) , to aid him in his battle to regain his throne , after being overthrown by a confederation led by the new Irish High King ( the previous incumbent had protected MacMurrough ) . Henry II of England , who reigned over the Angevin Empire , invaded Ireland to control Strongbow , who he feared was becoming a threat to the stability of his own kingdom on its western fringes ( there had been earlier fears that Saxon refugees might use either Ireland or Flanders as a base for a counter - offensive after 1066 ) ; much of the later Plantagenet consolidation of South Wales was in furtherance of holding open routes to Ireland . Laudabiliter 1155 . Another reason King Henry invaded Ireland was because Pope Adrian IV , the only Englishman to have occupied the papal throne , had issued a papal bull " Laudabiliter " ( 1155 ) authorising the English monarch to take possession of Ireland . Religious practices and ecclesiastical organisation in Ireland had evolved divergently from those in areas of Europe influenced more directly by the Holy See , although many of these differences had been eliminated or greatly lessened by the time the bull was issued in 1155 . Further , the former Irish church had never sent its dues ( " tithes " ) to Rome . Henry ' s primary motivation for invading Ireland 1171 was to control Strongbow and other Norman lords . In the process he accepted the fealty of the Gaelic kings at Dublin in November 1171 , and he summoned the Synod of Cashel in 1172 , which brought the Irish Church into conformity with English and European norms . The pope asserted the right to grant sovereignty over islands to different monarchs on the basis of a document , later proved to be a forgery , called the Donation of Constantine . Doubts were cast by eminent scholars on " Laudabiliter " itself in the 19th century , but its effect was confirmed by letters of Pope Alexander III and by the facts on the ground . The Papal power to grant also fell within the remit of " Dictatus papae " ( 1075 – 87 ) . While " Laudabiliter " had referred to the " kingdom " of Ireland , the Papacy was ambiguous about describing it as a kingdom as early as 1185 . John , Lord in 1177 – 1216 . Having captured a small part of Ireland on the east coast , Henry used the land to solve a dispute dividing his family . For he had divided his territories between his sons , with the youngest being nicknamed " Jean sans - terre " ( in English , " John Lackland " ) as he was left without lands to rule . At the Oxford parliament in May 1177 , Henry replaced William FitzAldelm and granted John his Irish lands , so becoming Lord of Ireland ( " Dominus Hiberniae " ) in 1177 when he was 10 years old , with the territory being known in English as the Lordship of Ireland . Henry had wanted John to be crowned King of Ireland on his first visit in 1185 , but Pope Lucius III specifically refused permission . " Dominus " was the usual title of a king who had not yet been crowned , suggesting that it was Henry ' s intention . Lucius then died while John was in Ireland , and Henry obtained consent from Pope Urban III and ordered a crown of gold and peacock feathers for John . In late 1185 the crown was ready , but John ' s visit had by then proved a complete failure , so Henry cancelled the coronation . Following the deaths of John ' s older brothers he became King of England in 1199 , and so the Lordship of Ireland , instead of being a separate country ruled by a junior Norman prince , came under the direct rule of the Norman - English Crown . Progress and decline . The Lordship thrived in the 13th century during the Medieval Warm Period , a time of warm climate and better harvests . The feudal system was introduced , and the Parliament of Ireland first sat in 1297 . Some counties were created by shiring , while walled towns and castles became a feature of the landscape . But little of this engagement with mainstream European life was of benefit to those the Normans called the " mere Irish " . " Mere " derived from the Latin " merus " , meaning pure . Environmental decay and deforestation continued unabated throughout this period , being greatly exacerbated by the English newcomers and an increase in population . The Norman élite and churchmen spoke Norman French and Latin . Many poorer settlers spoke English , Welsh and Flemish . The Gaelic areas spoke Irish dialects . The Yola language of County Wexford was a survivor of the early English dialects . The Lordship suffered invasion from Scotland by Edward Bruce in 1315 – 18 , which destroyed much of the economy and coincided with the great famine of 1315 – 17 . The earldom of Ulster ended in 1333 , and the Black Death of 1348 – 50 impacted more on the town - dwelling Normans than on the remaining Gaelic clans . The Norman and English colonists exhibited a tendency to adopt much of the native culture and language , becoming " Gaelicized " or in the words of some More Irish than the Irish themselves . In 1366 the Statute of Kilkenny tried to keep aspects of Gaelic culture out of the Norman - controlled areas , but in vain . As the Norman lordships became increasingly Gaelicized and made alliances with native chiefs , whose power steadily increased , crown control slowly eroded . Additionally , the Angevin government increasingly alienated the Irish chiefs and people on whom they often relied for their military strength . It had been a common practice for the Norman lordships as well as government forces to recruit the native Irish who were allied to them or living in English controlled areas ( i . e . Meath , Leinster , Ossory , Munster and Connacht ) . This was easy to do as the native Irish had no great sense of national identity at that time and were prone to mercenarism and shifting alliances . But as Irish chiefs became increasingly alienated by the oppressive measures of the English government and began openly rebelling against the crown , the difficulties faced by the Angevin government mounted . Some of the more notable among those clans who had formerly cooperated with the English but became increasingly alienated until turning openly anti - Norman and a thorn in the side of the Dublin administration were the O ' Connor Falys , the MacMurrough - Kavanagh dynasty , the Byrne s and the O ' Mores of Leix . These clans were able to successfully defend their territories against English attack for a very long time through a use of asymmetrical guerrilla warfare and devastating raids into the lands held by the colonists . Additionally , the power of native chiefs who had never come under English domination such as the O ' Neills and the O ' Donnells increased steadily until these became once again major power players on the scene of Irish politics . Historians refer to a Gaelic revival or resurgence as occurring between 1350 and 1500 , by which time the area ruled for the Crown — " the Pale " — had shrunk to a small area around Dublin . Between 1500 and 1542 a mixed situation arose . Most clans remained loyal to the Lord most of the time , using a Gaelic - style system of alliances centred around the Lord Deputy who was usually the current Earl of Kildare . However a rebellion by the 9th Earl ' s heir Silken Thomas in 1535 led on to a less sympathetic system of rule by mainly English - born administrators . The rebellion and Henry VIII ' s seizure of the Irish monasteries around 1540 led on to his plan to create a new kingdom based on the existing parliament . Lordship to Kingdom , 1542 . English monarchs continued to use the title " Lord of Ireland " to refer to their position of conquered lands on the island of Ireland . The title was changed by the Crown of Ireland Act passed by the Irish Parliament in 1542 when , on Henry VIII ' s demand , he was granted a new title , King of Ireland , with the state renamed the Kingdom of Ireland . Henry VIII changed his title because the Lordship of Ireland had been granted to the Norman monarchy by the Papacy ; Henry had been excommunicated by the Catholic Church and worried that his title could be withdrawn by the Holy See . Henry VIII also wanted Ireland to be become a full kingdom to encourage a greater sense of loyalty amongst his Irish subjects , some of whom took part in his policy of surrender and regrant . The policies of Henry VIII began the so - called Tudor re - conquest of Ireland , in which the English government once again began to assert its authority over the island , through the use of brutal , genocidal warfare as well as diplomacy , treachery , bribery and fomenting internecine conflict among the natives . The proclivity of the native Irish to play mercenary , fight internecine conflicts against each other and even make alliances with the English government to do so while neglecting the threat posed by the English enabled the re - conquest to succeed , as exemplified by the Desmond Rebellions . Government forces still faced remarkably stiff resistance , especially from the more warlike and powerful O ' Neill and O ' Donnell clans . The wars culminated in the Nine Years ' War ( Ireland ) in which the Irish displayed remarkable bravery , determination and prowess in their resistance , being able to defeat the English in many battles , most notably the battle of Clontibret in 1595 , the battle of the Yellow Ford in 1598 and the battle of Curlew Pass in 1599 . However , the Irish were ultimately unable to rid the island of the English threat , the rebellion being crushed after the English defeated O ' Neill ' s and O ' Donnell ' s combined forces in 1601 at the battle of Kinsale . Parliaments and great Councils 1318 – 69 . Government was based in Dublin , but the members of parliament could be summonsed to meet anywhere :