Invasion: Vikings and Normans
From 795, Ireland was increasingly plagued by destructive Viking raids , in which many of the great monasteries were plundered and burned (though many more were destroyed as a result of indigenous intertribal warfare in the eighth and ninth centuries). The instability of the period led to the development of the round towers , which were used as lookout posts and places of sanctuary - and which characterize early Irish architecture. The Viking raids culminated in a full-scale invasion in 914 and the subsequent founding of walled cities, usually at the mouths of rivers, such as Dublin, Wexford, Waterford, Youghal, Cork, Bantry and Limerick. The decisive defeat of the Danes by the High King Brian Boru at the Battle of Clontarf in 1014 at least spared Ireland from becoming a Viking colony. However, the death of Brian Boru at the battle, and the subsequent divisions among his followers, meant that his victory was never consolidated by the formation of a strong unified kingdom. The Vikings that remained soon merged fully into the native Irish population. From the time of the Norman conquest onwards, the kings of England coveted Ireland. The first of the Anglo-Normans to cross over to Ireland was a freelance adventurer, Richard FitzGilbert de Clare, more usually known as Strongbow . He came in 1169 at the invitation of Dermot MacMurrough, the exiled king of Leinster, who sought help to regain his throne. Henry II of England, however, was concerned that Strongbow might establish a threatening power base and therefore went personally to Ireland as overlord. He had earlier secured papal support and authorization over all powers - native, Norse and Norman - from, as chance would have it, the only English pope in history, Adrian IV. In 1172, Pope Alexander III reaffirmed Henry II's lordship. This seemed to open the prospect of Anglo-Norman rule in which Gaelic tribal kingdoms would be reshaped into a feudal system on the English model, but the Irish resisted so effectively that royal authority outside the "English Pale" (an area surrounding Dublin) was little more than nominal (and gave rise to the pejorative English expression "beyond the pale", signifying a lack of civilization)
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