Flaithbertach mac Inmainén
Flaithbertach mac Inmainén (died 944) was
Cath Belach Mugna
Flaithbertach is first mentioned by the
In 908, Cormac and Flaithbertach collected an army to campaign against their eastern neighbours,
After the army of Munster had gathered, while riding through the camp Flaithbertach's horse stumbled and threw him to the ground. This, it is said, was taken to be a very bad omen. Many of the Munstermen were unwilling to fight, and news of this came to Cerball mac Muirecáin, who proposed a negotiated settlement. The Leinstermen would pay tribute, and give hostages, but the hostages would be given to Móenachm, abbot of
This, and the news than Flann and the Uí Néill had come to Cerball's aid, led to desertions from Cormac's army, but he marched on Leinster all the same, meeting Cerball and Flann at the
Kildare and Cashel
Flaithbertach was taken to Kildare, where he was held captive, not being released until after Cerball mac Muirecáin's death in 909. The Fragmentary Annals say that the clerics of Leinster, apparently led by the abbess of Kildare, Muirenn ingen Suairt, subjected Flaithbertach to harsh criticism for his part in the death of the saintly Cormac: "The evil things that certain scholars of Leinster said about Flaithbertach are shameful to tell, and improper to write."[6]
The kingship of Munster was seemingly vacant from Cormac's death until 914, when the Annals of Innisfallen and the Fragmentary Annals report that Flaithbertach was installed at Cashel as king of Munster. It is suggested that clerical kings—Flaithbertach and Cormac were not the only such, an earlier abbot of Inis Cathaig, Ólchobar mac Flainn had also been king of Munster, as had an abbot of Emly, Ólchobar mac Cináeda—were usually compromise candidates, chosen when the inner circle of Eóganachta could find no acceptable candidate from their own ranks. Such clerical kings often belonged to outsider or even unimportant families. Byrne states that Flaithbertach had no link to the ruling families of the Eóganachta, being described as a member of the Múscraige.[7]
Little can be said with certainty about Flaithbertach's reign, a period which saw increasing
Notes
- ^ For the origins of the Irish annals, see Hughes, Early Christian Ireland, and for their biases in the 9th and 10th centuries, especially pp. 135–137. Russell, "Cormac", accepts that Cormac and Flaithbertach did obtain hostages; Annals of Innisfallen, AI 907.3 & 907.4; Annals of the Four Masters, AFM 902.6 & 902.7.
- ^ Wiley, "Cath Belaig Mugna".
- ^ Byrne, Irish Kings, p. 214
- ^ Wiley, "Cath Belaig Mugna"; Russell, "Cormac"; Fragmentary Annals, FA 423.
- ^ Wiley, "Cath Belaig Mugna"; Russell, "Cormac"; Fragmentary Annals, FA 423; Annals of Ulster, AU 908.3; Annals of Innisfallen, AI 908.2; Annals of the Four Masters, AFM 903.7.
- ^ Wiley, "Cath Belaig Mugna"; Fragmentary Annals, FA 423; Bhreathnach, "Abbesses", pp. 116–117.
- ^ Byrne, Irish Kings, pp 213–215; Annals of Innisfallen, AI 914.1; Fragmentary Annals, FA 457.
- ^ Downham, Viking Kings, pp. 36–38.
- ^ His death is generally reported: Annals of Ulster, AU 944.1; Annals of the Four Masters, AFM 942.5; Annals of Innisfallen, AI 944.1.
- ^ Byrne, Irish Kings, pp. 204 & 278.
- ^ Annals of the Four Masters, AFM 920.33; for pilgrimage, which need not mean that he left Ireland, see Bhreathnach pp.121–124.
- ^ Downham, Viking Kings, p. 36.
References
- Annals of Innisfallen, CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts, 2000, retrieved 16 December 2007
- Annals of the Four Masters, CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts, 2002, retrieved 16 December 2007
- Annals of Ulster AD 431–1201, CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts, 2003, retrieved 10 February 2007
- Bhreathnach, Edel (2001), "Abbesses, Minor Dynasties and Kings in clericatu: Perspectives from Ireland, 700–850", in Brown, Michelle P.; Farr, Carol A. (eds.), Mercia: An Anglo-Saxon kingdom in Europe, Leicester: Leicester University Press, pp. 113–125, ISBN 0-8264-7765-8
- ISBN 0-7134-5882-8
- ISBN 0-340-16145-0
- Radner, Joan N., ed. (2004) [1975], Fragmentary Annals of Ireland, CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts, retrieved 10 February 2007
- Russell, Paul (2004), "Cormac mac Cuilennáin (d. 908)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford: Oxford University Press, retrieved 22 March 2008
- Wiley, Dan M. (2005), "Cath Belaig Mugna", The Cycles of the Kings, archived from the original on 7 May 2008, retrieved 21 March 2008