Stories of King Sean
8 - The Four Queens
Mediaeval history is often a parade of men, and there are even fairly good reasons for this given the views that existed until relatively recently – it was the men who were seen to shape events. Women rarely rose to a situation where they had that opportunity. However, some fields of history are even more hide-bound than others, perhaps none more so than Irish history. Indeed, it was not even a women, but a man – St Croix – who first concentrated academic attentions on how the women in King Sean’s life – in particular his four wives – provide new ways to understand this most celebrated of men. What follows is an edited version of an article that first appeared in the Reader’s Digest. In particular the entries on Sean’s mother and sister have been left aside.
King Sean’s first wife was the Lady Lucija Trpimirovic, daughter of the King of Croatia. This has been generally been regarded as being an odd match from two very disparate parts of Christendom. However, this marriage tells us a great deal about the aspirations and political machinations that are almost always present in royal marriages.
King Domnall had re-formed the Kingdom of Tara, but it would be fair to say his new kingdom had very little real legitimacy. It existed because of the force of his will, not through any precedent or real tradition. Meanwhile Croatia, though acknowledged as being regal rank, was largely overshadowed by the Kings of Bohemia and Hungary, not to mention both the German and Greek Emperors. A match between these two houses therefore became mutually agreeable – for King Domnall a royal bride for his son and heir was a sign of status. For the Croat king it allowed him to behave in a majesterial fashion – sending a daughter to a far and distant land being something more imperial. In this it was pure theatre, but for both rulers involved very useful theatre even so.
Of course, it was not just theatre. For all the pomp and political posturings there are some very real dynastic purposes to a marriage, and unfortunately the marriage of King Sean and Lady Lucija was childless for many years. It was only after King Sean’s Papal Absolution did his wife finally conceive – some at the time regarded that as its own sign – and in due course the young Prince Fiachnae was born. Lady Lucija however did not get a chance to enjoy motherhood as she passed away within a few days of her son’s birth, perhaps of internal bleeding.
From King Sean’s perspective, one infant son did not a secure succession make. He needed another wife, and now it was that his father’s scheming had an unintentional benefit. The German Emperor – Kaiser Heinrich V – had noted Croatia’s ambitions and sought to emphasise his own imperial ambitions. His chosen method was to offer King Sean his daughter Ida – to send to Tara a full-fledged Imperial Princess. This is the standard explanation for the second marriage, and while I believe it contains truth, it is far from the whole reality.
During the early part of the twelfth century the German Empire and France were engaged in a many-layered struggle for the dominance of Lotharingia. This has naturally brought in the English Kings, who proved to be natural allies of the German Emperors as a result of their own disputes with the French King – and also because Germany provided a check on further potentially adventurers making a play for England’s crown, as they were largely based in Denmark. King Sighere the Great had by now entered his majority, and notwistanding the long-standing connections between his house and Tara saw in King Sean a natural ally. The Scots had informally allied with France, has had the little King of Brittany. In turn he was seeking influence with some of the smaller Irish lordlings, including Tyrconnel and Munster. The Scottish king was sympathetic to the designs of King Sean’s sister, and Munster in particular was possibly Tara’s only real rival on Ireland. The marriage of King Sean and Princess Ida thus became an extension of the alliance politics of the day, which indeed extended throughout the entirety of Latin Christendom.
From King Sean’s perspective though there was another very significant advantage – being given an Imperial Princess as bride was as sure a signal of the regal status of his family as could be conceived. It was more than recognition: it was acceptance into the royal club.
What no one expected, not King Sean, King Sighere, Kaiser Heinrich, or indeed the Princess Ida herself, was that the newlyweds would fall in love. It is clear both parties went into this marriage with their eyes open. King Sean, parricide and widower, already knew about the realities of the world, and as for Princess Ida the Imperial Court was no place for innocents. The accounts that have survived of the wedding present a royal couple who put on a good show, but were nevertheless playing the role. Things appear to have changed that following winter. What precisely happened has been forever lost, but thereafter every written source remarks how the King and Queen spent nearly every waking moment in each other’s company, oftentimes in fierce defiance of tradition. We hear tales of the great tenderness in which they spoke to each other, and of how radiant they appeared together. News of their romance spread throughout Christendom and formed some of the founding traditions of the troubadours in Aquitaine. One man wrote it was as if every moment was too precious to waste, as, of course, it proved to be.
After a few short years Queen Ida died in childbirth. Her son, Prince Tadg, survived, but in a sense he was never healthy of mind. His mother’s death obsessed him, and even in later life when he was the King of Lotharingia under Imperial Aegis he would still claim to converse with her. That was in the future however, and it is not difficult to see how he would be so afflicted – for so was King Sean. He forever mourned his great love, right up until his death as that most famous of letters from the Vatican Archives shows. He is recorded to have remarked on many occasions that he wished he was able to take a vow of celibacy at that time, but his view of his duties as King would not allow it, to his great and enduring grief.
After all, the marriage to a reigning monarch is a powerful asset for any state, and should not needlessly be cast away for purely personal reasons. Thus it became time to search for a new bride, and the choice eventually fell upon the Danish Princess, the Lady Kristen. The situation in Latin Christendom had gotten exceedingly tense by that time, and war would shortly follow. Part of the agreement between Tara and Denmark was that the latter would cease to support any pretenders to the English throne, and indeed this does appear to have marked the end of England’s dynastic conflict. There was a further element as well, in that the King of Norway had also just gotten involved in Irish affairs, and so the alliance with Denmark provided a useful counter.
King Sean and Queen Kristen were married just after Tara’s first encroachment into the ancient kingdom of Ulster. Their marriage was a more typically royal nature, but successful nevertheless: bereft of love it became a partnership of two talented and committed individuals. Queen Kirsten proved to be able and valued advisor, deftly serving her husband as they went about the process of transforming Tara into the Kingdom of Ireland through the troubled years of the Tyrconnell wars. Given King Sean’s sometimes straightforward nature many historians – and indeed contemporary chroniclers, have detected Queen Kirsten’s hand behind events and one turn or another. The chief reason for their harmony, no doubt, was Queen Kirsten’s ability to handle the ever-seeping wound of her predecessor’s death, perhaps in the same way a Company Chairman might go about managing the bereavement of a conglomerate CEO.
This partnership saw Ireland united, but alas Queen Kirsten’s life was also cruelly cut short. She was killed by an assassin, but it transpired it was her sister who was behind the deed. Some claim this was the result of a long-running child-hood feud, whilst others claim it to be a desperate attempt to re-energise Danish support for yet another adventure the English throne (Queen Kristen’s sister was married to one of King Sighere’s cousins) by annulling the marriage that brought such support to an end. Perhaps the hope was it would induce war between Ireland and Denmark, a war into which England would inevitably be drawn. If so, they had misjudged their man: King Sean very publicly absolved his father-in-law of any wrong-doing in the deed, spoke of him as a friend, and so ended any potential plots. This act displays more than anything else, perhaps, the development of Ireland and King Sean. His marriage to her was partially at the behest of King Sighere (as was his marriage to Queen Ida), which shows the reality of being a relatively minor king in the panoply of nations. Now though he was referring to the King of Denmark as an equal, if not perhaps as a subordinate. Ireland had begun its great ascent.
Thus we turn to King Sean’s fourth wife: Queen Elisebete. King Sean was an older man now, though in modern-terms he was only really middle-aged. He was most devout in his duties to his kingdom, and it appears that the same arguments that led to the Danish marriage still held sway: the prize of Queen of Ireland was a powerful asset, not to be wasted. He used it to look to the future security of his realm by turning to the Kingdom of Galicia.
The on-off wars in France had, by this point, come to a pause. The English possession of Chartres was confirmed, as was German dominion over Flanders. The Capet King decided to pursue other endeavours, waiting for a moment of weakness in their opponents that would not come in his life-time: France was well on the downward slope of its decline, though no one knew yet how lowly they would become. Galicia had been aligned with France, and had twice sent armies to Ireland in the Tyrconnell wars. At that time Galicia was one of the pre-eminent powers in the Iberian peninsular, yet to suffer their collapse into irrelevance. King Sean saw a court with a proven record of intervention in Irish affairs, and a place for exiles to gather. So with the marriage he sought to do with Galicia what his marriage to Kirsten had done between England and Denmark: remove to the dynastic threat.
Of course, King Sean’s heart gave out shortly after the wedding, and so Queen Elisebete's role in Irish history is that of a bit-player, present at only one notable moment. How her personality would have contributed to the latter years of King Sean’s reign we will never know. Shortly after King Sean’s death she discovered she was pregnant, but after giving birth to another Irish Princess she choose to return to her own country. However the political ramifications survived his demise. King Fiachnae never had to worry over-much about disaffected exiles, and his rule in Ireland was never seriously threatened.
The four marriages of King Sean are thus a useful tool to view the various stages of his life and reign. Queen Lucija was in his beginning, and when he and Tara were at their most vulnerable. Queen Ida was the time of his and Tara’s repatriation to the wider community. The marriage to Queen Kirsten was the first time they sought an alliance primarily (not though solely) for their own immediate purposes, and is the time of King Sean’s maturity. Finally with Queen Elisebete is Ireland fully accepted as a regal nation, dealing with other Kings of the first rank as equals.
These were political marriages, cloaked in the ambitions of the times. They were political theatre, and also in one case they helped spawn the great outpouring of romantic culture that would come out of Aquitaine and Provence within a generation: the modern counter-part to King Arthur.
