Mór Ní Thuathail

Mór Ní Thuathail
Queen consort of Leinster
Tenurec. 1140 – 1 May 1171
Bornc. 1114
Castledermot, County Kildare, Ireland
Died1191
Ireland
SpouseDiarmait Mac Murchada, King of Leinster
IssueConchobhar MacMurrough
Aoife of Leinster
Orlachan of Leinster
HouseO'Toole
Mac Murchada
FatherMuitchertach Ua Tuathail
MotherCacht Ní Morda

Mór Ní Thuathail (anglicised as Mor O'Toole; c. 1114 – 1191) was a Queen-consort of Leinster as the principal first wife of King Diarmait Mac Murchada.[1][2] Under Brehon Law, Irish men were allowed more than one wife. King Dermot's second wife was Sadhbh Ní Fhaolain.

Mór was the mother of Aoife of Leinster, the wife of Richard de Clare, Earl of Pembroke, known to history as Strongbow.[2][3]

Family

Mór was born in Castledermot, Kildare, Ireland in about 1114, the daughter of Muirchertach Ua Tuathail, King of the Uí Muiredaigh, and Cacht Ní Morda.

Her paternal grandparents were Gilla Comgaill Ua Toole and Sadbh Ní Domnail and her maternal grandparents were Loigsig Ua Morda, King of Laois and Gormlaith Ní Caellaide.

One of Mór’s four half-brothers was St. Lorcán Ua Tuathail, Archbishop of Dublin, who was canonised in 1225 by Pope Honorius III.

Dermot MacMurrough, King of Leinster, husband of Mor O'Toole

Marriage and issue

Sometime about 1140 in Loch Garman, County Wexford, Mór was married to King Diarmait Mac Murchada of Leinster as his principal first wife, making her Queen-consort of Leinster. His second wife was Sadhbh Ní Fhaolain. Under Brehon Law, Irish men were permitted more than one wife. In 1152, he abducted Derbforgaill Ní Mhaol Seachlainn, the wife of the King of Breifne, Tighearnán Ua Ruairc (Irish: Tighearnán Ua Ruairc).[citation needed]

Together Dermot and Mór had about three children:

In 1167, Mór's son Conchobhar was killed by Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair, High King of Ireland, after having been taken hostage while Diarmait waged war against Ruaidrí with the aim of overthrowing him in order to take his place as the High King.

Queen Mór died in 1191, three years after her eldest daughter, Aoife. Her husband predeceased her on 1 May 1171 in Ferns, shortly after the Cambro-Norman invasion of Ireland led by their son-in-law, Strongbow.

See also

References

  1. ^ Tyrrell, Alma Brooke (1982). "In Search of St. Laurence O'Toole 1128 - 1180". Dublin Historical Record. 35 (3): 82–94. ISSN 0012-6861. JSTOR 30105284.
  2. ^ a b Ulin, Julieann Veronica (2014), Ulin, Julieann Veronica (ed.), "Conclusion: Medieval Genealogies and a Modern Medieval Obituary", Medieval Invasions in Modern Irish Literature, London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, pp. 163–168, doi:10.1057/9781137297501_5, ISBN 978-1-137-29750-1, retrieved 25 January 2024
  3. ^ Flanagan, Marie Therese (January 2019). "Negotiating across Legal and Cultural Borders: Aífe, Daughter of Diarmait Mac Murchada, King of Leinster, and Marriage, Motherhood and Widowhood in Twelfth-century Ireland and England". Peritia. 30: 71–95. doi:10.1484/j.perit.5.120981. ISSN 0332-1592.