Brian Boru (redirected from Boru)

Brian Boru or Brian Boroimhe (both: brī`ən, brēn; bər`, bərō`), 940?–1014, king of Ireland. A clan prince, he succeeded his brother Mathghamhain, who had seized the throne of Munster from the Eogharacht rulers (963). Brian subjugated all Munster, then extended his power over all S Ireland, and in 1002 became high king of Ireland by right of conquest. As his power increased, relations with the Norse rulers on the Irish coast grew steadily worse. Sitric, king of the Dublin Norse, formed against Brian a coalition of the Norse of Ireland, the Hebrides, the Orkneys, and Iceland as well as Brian's Irish enemies. On Good Friday (Apr. 23), 1014, Brian's forces met and annihilated the allies at Clontarf, near Dublin. Soon afterward he was murdered in his tent. Brian's victory broke the Norse power in Ireland forever, but Ireland fell into anarchy.

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Brian Boru

(born 941, near Killaloe, Ire.—died April 23, 1014, Clontarf, near Dublin) High king of Ireland (1002–14). He became king of Munster in 976, won control of the southern half of Ireland from the high king Maelsechlainn in 997, and replaced him in 1002. Leinster and the Norsemen of Dublin united against him in 1013 with help from abroad; at the Battle of Clontarf, won by his son Murchad, Brian was killed in his tent by fleeing Norsemen (see Vikings). A line of princes, the O'Briens, descended from him.

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Brian Boru

?941--1014, king of Ireland (1002--14): killed during the defeat of the Danes at the battle of Clontarf