Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/O'Connor, Roderic (1116-1198)
O'CONNOR, RODERIC (1116–1198), king of Ireland, called in Irish Ruaidhri UA Conchobhair, was son of Turlough O'Connor [q. v.] At the age of twenty-seven his father seems to have suspected him in some way, and made him a prisoner, in spite of pledges to the contrary. The bishops and clergy of Connaught, in accordance with the brehon law, fasted against the king at Rathbrennain, but failed to obtain his son's release. On the death of Turlough in 1156 Roderic assumed the kingship of Connaught, and the Sil Muireadhaigh, his tribe, gave him the custody of his brothers Brian Breifnach, Brian Luighneach, and Muircheartach Muimhneach. He put out the eyes of the first, as a sure means of preventing him from becoming a rival. Turlogh O'Brien and the Dal Cais gave him twelve hostages. He then ravaged the plain of Teffia in Westmeath, and the district then called Machaire Cuircne, and now known as the barony of Kilkenny West, co. Westmeath. So severe was the winter that he marched on the frozen Shannon from Galey to Randown, co. Roscommon. In 1157, while the king of Ailech was invading the south, he entered Tyrone, and burnt Iniseanaigh, cut down its orchard, and plundered the country as far as Keenaght, co. Derry. He then sailed down the Shannon into Munster, and made a partition of it between O'Brien and MacCarthy. Next year he plundered Ossory and Leix, but lost many men on a second expedition into Teffia. In 1159 he tried to make a bridge at Athlone, but was attacked by Donnchadh O'Maelsechlainn, and lost his son Aedh in the battle, though he forced his way into Meath, in alliance with Tighearnan O'Ruairc, and marched as far as Ardee, co. Louth. The Conmaicne or O'Farrells and their kin, and the Ui Briuin or O'Ruaircs and O'Reillys and their kin, were on his side, arranged in six divisions, and he was opposed by Muircheartach O'Lochlainn [q. v.], at the head of the Cinel Eoghain, Cinel Conaill, and the Oirghialla. He was utterly defeated and followed into Connaught by O'Lochlainn, who inflicted so much injury that O'Connor was unable to take the field again till 1160, when he took hostages from Teffia, sailed down the Shannon, and received hostages from the Dal Cais. He met O'Lochlainn at Assaroe, co. Donegal, with a view to peace, but no treaty was made; and in 1161, after war with Turlogh O'Brien, he invaded Meath with Tighernan O'Ruairc, and took hostages from the Ui Faelain and the Ui Failghe, but was obliged to give hostages, in token of submission, to O'Lochlainn. Next year he received one hundred ounces of gold from Dermot O'Maelsechlainn as tribute for Westmeath. In 1165 he invaded Desmond, and took hostages from MacCarthy, and in 1166 he took advantage of the weakness of the north, after the death in battle of Muircheartach O'Lochlainn, to march to Assaroe, and obtain hostages from the Cinel Conaill. In the same year he had the shrine of St. Manchan of Mohill, co. Leitrim, covered with goldwork. He went to Dublin, gave the Danes four thousand cows, and was there inaugurated king of all Ireland, a ceremony which was the first Irish regal pageant of which that city was the scene. He then took hostages of the Oirghialla at Drogheda, and afterwards of Diarmaid Mac Murchada [q. v.], and of Munster. After the flight of Diarmaid to England, he received seventeen hostages from his grandson, who was set up as king of Leinster. He had no hereditary claim to be king of Ireland, and his attainment of that dignity in 1166 was entirely due to force. He assembled a great concourse of clergy and laity at Athboy, co. Meath, 1167. The Archbishop of Armagh, Cadhla O'Dubhthaigh, chief bishop of Connaught; Lorcan O'Toole, bishop of Glendaloch; Tighernan O'Ruairc, lord of Breifne; Donnchadh O'Cearbhaill, chief of the Oirghialla; MacDuinnsleibhe O'Heochadha, king of Ulidia, or Lesser Ulster; Dermot O'Maeleachlainn, king of Meath; and Raghnall, king of the Danes of Dublin, all attended, with thirteen thousand horsemen. Various laws were adopted by the meeting, which broke up without any fighting. Soon after, Diarmaid MacMurchada returned, and O'Connor fought him and his clan, the Ui Ceinnsealaigh, at Kellistown, co. Wexford, in two battles. Diarmaid gave him hostages. He celebrated the Aonach Taillten, or assembly of Telltown, in 1168, which was the last occasion upon which it was held. The horses of those who came extended from Mullach Aiti, now the Hill of Lloyd, to the Hill of Telltown, on the Blackwater, co. Meath, a distance of about six and a half miles. Cases were decided publicly by the king, and the Oirghialla demanded an eric (i.e. compensation) from the men of Meath for the slaying of a chief called O'Finnallain. O'Connor awarded eight hundred cows. The people of Meath were so irritated with their king, Dermot O'Maelechlainn, for having made them liable to such a tax that they deposed him after paying it. Roderic O'Connor himself received an eric of 240 cows from the Munstermen later in the year. He granted, in 1169, ten cows a year to the lector (ferleiginn) of Armagh for ever for teaching the scholars of Ireland and Scotland at Armagh, which was perhaps the first regular academical endowment in Ireland. He invaded Leinster in the same year, and in 1770 marched against Diarmaid MacMurchada and his Norman allies, but retired without fighting, and put Diarmaid's hostages to death at Athlone. In 1171 he led an army to Dublin, and for some time closely besieged it. Strongbow, probably to gain time, proposed to be Roderic's vassal for Leinster if he would raise the siege; but the proposal, which was brought by Bishop O'Toole, was rejected. The Normans held a council of war, and decided on a sally in the afternoon. They found the Irish unprepared; Roderic fled, and his army was routed. When Henry II visited Ireland in 1171, Roderic did not make submission to him, and in 1174 he defeated Strongbow at Thurles, and afterwards invaded Meath, whence he retired into Connaught, and in 1175 ravaged Munster. He sent, in the same year, Cadhla O'Dubhthaigh, his archbishop, with two other ecclesiastics, as envoys to Henry II. A treaty was concluded at Windsor. Roderic was to rule Connaught as before the English invasion, and was to be head, under Henry, of the kings and chiefs of Ireland. He was to acknowledge Henry as his liege lord, and to pay an annual tribute of hides. In 1177 his son Murchadh brought Milo de Cogan to attack Roscommon, but the English were defeated, and Murchadh captured by his father, who had his eyes put out. Another son, Conchobhar, allied with the English, invaded Connaught in 1186, and Roderic was driven into Munster; and, though afterwards recalled, and given a triochacéd or barony of land, he was deposed from the kingship of Connaught. When Conchobhar was slain in 1189, the Sil Muireadhaigh sent for Roderic, who came to Roscommon and received hostages, but was soon deposed by Cathal O'Connor [q. v.], called Crobhdhearg; and, after vainly asking help of Flaithbheartach O'Maoldoraidh, of the Cinel Conaill, of the Cinel Eoghain in Tyrone, and of the English in Meath, he went into Munster, and soon after entered the abbey of Cong, co. Galway, and died there in 1198. He was buried at Cong, and his bones were removed in 1207 to the north side of the high altar at Clonmacnoise. He is commonly spoken of in histories as the last native king of all Ireland, but Maelsechlainn II [q. v.] was the last legitimate Ard ri na hEireann, or chief king of Ireland, and Roderic's title to rule the whole island was no better than that of Henry II; both rested on force alone. If Ireland was the pope's to give away, it was justly Henry's; and if, as Roderic O'Connor had maintained, the sword alone could determine its sovereignty, then, also, Henry had the advantage over Roderic.
Roderic first married Taillten, daughter of Muircheartach O'Maeleachlain, and afterwards Dubhchobhlach, daughter of Maelsechlan mac Tadhg O'Maelruanaidh. His second wife died in 1168. He had two daughters and six sons: Conchobbar, Dermot, Turlough, Aedh, Murchadh, and Ruaidri. One daughter was married to Sir Hugh de Lacy, the other to Flaithbheartach O'Maeldoraigh.
Connor O'Connor, called by Irish writers Conchobhar Moinmaighe, succeeded his father as king of Connaught on his retirement to Cong. He defeated the English in the Curlew mountains in 1187, but was murdered in 1189 by Maghnus O'Fiannachta.
Connor was succeeded by his son Cathal Carrach O'Connor, whose title was at once disputed by his cousin Cathal O'Connor, called Crobhdhearg. He defeated his rival's allies, William Fitzaldhelm De Burgo and O'Neill, at Ballisadare, co. Roscommon, in 1198, but was slain in another battle of the same contest in 1201, at Guirtincuilluachra, co. Roscommon. He left one son, Maelseachlan. Aedh, Roderic's fourth son, in 1228 defeated his elder brother, Turlough, and became king of Connaught in 1228, but was slain in a battle with his cousin Feidhlimidh O'Connor, near Elphin, in 1233. Turlough had a son Brian, who died in Abbey Knockmoy in 1267, and after him no descendant of Roderic is mentioned in the chronicles. The ‘Annals of Loch Cé’ contain (i. 314) under the year 1233 an obviously ex post facto story to account for the extinction of his line, that he was so profligate as to have declined an offer from the highest ecclesiastical authority to permit him to have six lawful wives but no more.
[Annala Rioghachta Eireann, ed. O'Donovan, vols. ii. and iii.; Annals of Ulster (Rolls Ser.), ed. MacCarthy, vol. ii.; Lynch's Cambrensis Eversus (Celtic Society Publications); Giraldus Cambrensis (Rolls Ser.); O'Flaherty's Ogygia, ed. 1685; O'Donovan's Tribes and Customs of Hy Fiachrach, Dublin, 1844; Graves's Church and Shrine of St. Manchan, Dublin, 1875; Annals of Loch Cé, ed. Hennessy (Rolls Ser.), vol. i.; the O'Conor Don's O'Conors of Connaught, Dublin, 1891, p. 72, as to Henry II's treaty.]
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.208
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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