IRELAND432-1800分析.docVIP

IRELAND 432-1800 Ireland from St. Patrick to the Norman Conquest, 432-1169 It is not without justification that early Irish historians deemed pre-Norman Ireland to have been a ‘tribal’, ‘rural’, ‘hierarchical’ and ‘familiar’ society. The island was divided into a large number of small communities [tuatha] governed by a petty king [rí tuatha], elected from a local royal lineage. His sovereignty was based on numerous attributes including his military prowess, lack of physical blemish or disability, wisdom, generosity, impartiality and fitness to rule, attributes which were continually aired in t