The High King Killed Praying After Victory

On 23 April 1014, Good Friday, the High King of Ireland Brian Boru led his army to the Battle of Clontarf outside Dublin against a coalition of Viking warriors from Orkney, Iceland, the Isle of Man and Normandy, and the battle lasted from sunrise to sunset and by the end of it Brian’s forces had won and the Viking coalition was broken and hundreds were driven into the sea and drowned by the returning tide, and Brian’s own son Murchad was killed in the fighting, and his grandson Toirdelbach was killed, and Brian himself, now in his seventies and too old to fight, was in his tent praying when a small band of Manxmen fleeing the battlefield found it, overpowered his bodyguard, and killed him with a battle-axe, and the Norse Njal’s Saga recorded of his death that the men of Ireland would suffer a grief that would never grow old in the minds of men, and they were right.

Interesting Fact: Brian Boru had spent his entire life fighting to unite Ireland and break Viking power on the island. He succeeded on the one day he died. The King of Dublin, Sigtrygg Silkbeard — the man who had organised the entire coalition against Brian — watched the battle from inside the walls of Dublin and never fought at all. He survived and continued to reign for another 30 years. Brian’s body was carried 100 miles north to Armagh Cathedral, where he was buried beside his son. Ireland would not have another High King of his stature for centuries.

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