Laudabiliter

Laudabiliter was a Papal Bull issued in 1155 by Pope Adrian IV who was the only English man to serve in that office. The existence of the bull has been disputed by scholars over the centuries; no copy is extant. The bull purports to grant the right to the Angevin King Henry II of England to invade and govern Ireland and to enforce the Gregorian Reforms on the semi-autonomous Christian Church in Ireland. Richard de Clare ("Strongbow") and the other leaders of the Norman invasion of Ireland (1169–71) claimed that Laudabiliter authorised the invasion. These Cambro-Norman knights were retained by Diarmuid MacMorrough, the deposed King of Leinster, as an ally in his fight with the High King of Ireland, Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair.

Successive Kings of England, from Henry II (1171) until Henry VIII (1541), used the title Lord of Ireland and claimed that it had been conferred by Adrian's successor, Pope Alexander III.

After almost four centuries of the Lordship, the declaration of the independence of the Church of England from papal supremacy and the rejection of the authority of the Holy See required the creation of a new basis to legitimise the continued rule of the English monarch in Ireland. In 1542, the Crown of Ireland Act was passed by both the English and Irish Parliaments. The Act established a sovereign Kingdom of Ireland with Henry as King of Ireland. Despite being the first monarch of Ireland with the name "Henry", his regnal number was not "I" but "VIII" - his English regnal number.