Irish Kingship in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries examines the power of medieval Irish kings but treats ‘power’ as a complex concept worthy of study in its own right. It starts from the premise that historians of medieval Ireland have interpreted ‘power’ in a narrow way. This book engages with the rich corpus of literature on power produced by political scientists and sociologists, which reveals the sheer complexity, and vicissitudes, of ‘power’ as a concept. Where there is power, there is resistance. Hence, drawing on evidence from medieval Irish chronicles, hagiographies, saga literature and advice texts, this book explores the largely ignored phenomena of revolt, resistance and violence in eleventh- and twelfth-century Ireland.

It argues against a panoptic narrative of royal centralization, and suggests that the existence of a multiplicity of kings and non-royal lords has proven to be more of a problem for historians than it was for the Irish kings themselves.

This book will appeal to scholars and students of medieval Ireland, as well as those interested in the history of kingship, power and resistance.