A contract between king and people in early medieval Ireland: Críth Gablach on kingship

Abstract

The early eighth-century Irish legal tract, Críth Gablach (a text on status), ends with a discussion of kingship. It is particularly interesting for its perception of the relationship between a king and his people as a contract. It is argued that the background to this view is to be found within Ireland, especially in the relationship between client kings and their overlords and between the church and the laity. Críth Gablach’s account of kingship also includes a section on the proper arrangement of the king’s household. Some elements of this section are clearly artificial, but they can be explained in terms of a desire on the part of the author to include a christian interpretation of kingship.

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