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Early medieval kings in Ireland
For a list of kings of the early medieval period in the various Gaelic kingdoms of Ireland, as opposed to kings of all Ireland, see List of Irish kings.

High Kings of Ireland 846–1198

 * The historical High-Kings of Ireland date from the inauguration of Mael Sechnaill mac Maele Ruanaid in 846 to Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair, who died in 1198.



Ruaidrí was inaugurated King of Ireland at Dublin in spring 1166. He was arguably the first undisputed full king of Ireland. He was also the only Gaelic one, as the events of the Norman invasion of Ireland in 1169 undid Gaelic efforts at establishing an all-island united kingdom of Ireland. King Ruaidrí died at Cong in 1198, and was buried at Clonmacnoise. He was the last fully recognised Gaelic monarch of Ireland. Later claimants such as Brian Ua Neill (died 1260) and Edward Bruce (died 1318) were not recognised as such even among the native Irish.

House of Plantagenet
Stephen came to an agreement with Matilda in November 1153 with the signing of the Treaty of Wallingford, where Stephen recognised Henry, son of Matilda, as the heir-apparent to the throne in lieu of his own son.

Rather than ruling among the Normans, the Plantagenets ruled from Aquitaine — lands which were acquired through Henry II's marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine, but did not regard England as their primary home until after most of their French possessions were lost by King John. This long-lived dynasty is usually divided into three houses: the Angevins, the House of Lancaster and the House of York.

The Plantagenets formulated England's royal coat of arms, which usually showed other kingdoms held or claimed by them or their successors, although without representation of Ireland for quite some time.

Disputed claimant

Louis VIII of France briefly ruled about half of England from 1216 to 1217 at the conclusion of the First Barons' War against King John. On marching into London he was openly received by the rebel barons and citizens of London and proclaimed (though not crowned) king at St Paul's cathedral. Many nobles, including Alexander II of Scotland for his English possessions, gathered to give homage to him. However, in signing the Treaty of Lambeth in 1217, Louis conceded that he had never been the legitimate king of England.

House of Lancaster
This house descended from Edward III's third surviving son, John of Gaunt. Henry IV seized power from Richard II (and also displaced the next in line to the throne, Edmund Mortimer, a descendant of Edward III's second son, Lionel of Antwerp).

House of York
The House of York inherited its name from the fourth surviving son of Edward III, Edmund, 1st Duke of York, but claimed the right to the throne through Edward III's second surviving son, Lionel of Antwerp.

The Wars of the Roses (1455–1485) saw the throne pass back and forth between the rival houses of Lancaster and York.

House of Tudor
The Tudors descended matrilineally from John Beaufort, one of the illegitimate children of John of Gaunt (third surviving son of Edward III), by Gaunt's long-term mistress Katherine Swynford. Those descended from English monarchs only through an illegitimate child would normally have no claim on the throne, but the situation was complicated when Gaunt and Swynford eventually married in 1396 (25 years after John Beaufort's birth). In view of the marriage, the church retroactively declared the Beauforts legitimate via a papal bull the same year (also enshrined in an Act of Parliament in 1397). A subsequent proclamation by John of Gaunt's legitimate son, King Henry IV, also recognised the Beauforts' legitimacy, but declared them ineligible ever to inherit the throne. Nevertheless, the Beauforts remained closely allied with Gaunt's other descendants, the Royal House of Lancaster.

John Beaufort's granddaughter Lady Margaret Beaufort was married to Edmund Tudor. Tudor was the son of Welsh courtier Owain Tewdwr or Tudur (anglicised to Owen Tudor) and Catherine of Valois, the widowed queen consort of the Lancastrian King Henry V. Edmund Tudor and his siblings were either illegitimate, or the product of a secret marriage, and owed their fortunes to the goodwill of their legitimate half-brother King Henry VI. When the House of Lancaster fell from power, the Tudors followed. By the late 15th century, the Tudors were the last hope for the Lancaster supporters. Edmund Tudor's son became king as Henry VII after defeating Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, ending the Wars of the Roses.

With Henry VIII's break from the Roman Catholic Church, the monarch became the Supreme Head of the Church of England and of the Church of Ireland. Elizabeth I's title became the Supreme Governor of the Church of England.

Disputed claimant

Edward VI named Lady Jane Grey as his heir presumptive, overruling the order of succession laid down by Parliament in the Third Succession Act. Four days after his death on 6 July 1553, Jane was proclaimed queen—the first of three Tudor women to be proclaimed queen regnant. Nine days after the proclamation, on 19 July, the Privy Council switched allegiance and proclaimed Edward VI's Catholic half-sister Mary. Jane was executed in 1554, aged 16. Many historians do not consider her to have been a legitimate monarch.

Under the terms of the marriage treaty between Philip I of Naples (Philip II of Spain from 15 January 1556) and Queen Mary I, Philip was to enjoy Mary's titles and honours for as long as their marriage should last. All official documents, including Acts of Parliament, were to be dated with both their names, and Parliament was to be called under the joint authority of the couple. An Act of Parliament gave him the title of king and stated that he "shall aid her Highness... in the happy administration of her Grace’s realms and dominions" (although elsewhere the Act stated that Mary was to be "sole queen"). Nonetheless, Philip was to co-reign with his wife. As the new King of England could not read English, it was ordered that a note of all matters of state should be made in Latin or Spanish. Coins were minted showing the heads of both Mary and Philip, and the coat of arms of England (right) was impaled with Philip's to denote their joint reign. Acts which made it high treason to deny Philip's royal authority were passed in England and Ireland. In 1555, Pope Paul IV issued a papal bull recognising Philip and Mary as rightful King and Queen of Ireland.

House of Stuart
Following the death of Elizabeth I in 1603 without issue, the Scottish king, James VI, succeeded to the English throne as James I in the Union of the Crowns. James was descended from the Tudors through his great-grandmother, Margaret Tudor, the eldest daughter of Henry VII. In 1604 he adopted the title King of Great Britain. However the two parliaments remained separate.

Commonwealth
There was no reigning monarch between the execution of Charles I in 1649 and the Restoration of Charles II in 1660. Instead, from 1653 the following individuals held power as Lords Protector, during the period known as the Protectorate, when the monarchy was overthrown.

Old Ironsides 16 December 1653–1658 ||||25 April 1599 Huntingdon son of Robert Cromwell and Elizabeth Steward ||Elizabeth Bourchier in St Giles 22 August 1620 nine children ||3 September 1658 Whitehall aged 59 Tumbledown Dick 3 September 1658 – 7 May 1659 ||||4 October 1626 Huntingdon son of Oliver Cromwell and Elizabeth Bourchier ||Dorothy Maijor May 1649 nine children ||12 July 1712 Cheshunt aged 85
 * Oliver Cromwell
 * Richard Cromwell
 * Richard Cromwell
 * }

House of Stuart (restored)
Although the monarchy was restored in 1660, no stable settlement proved possible until the Glorious Revolution of 1688, when Parliament finally asserted the right to choose whomsoever it pleased as monarch.

In 1177, as the leader of the Norman invasion of Ireland, King Henry II of England created the title of Lord of Ireland for his youngest son John, who was not then expected to succeed to any other title. John became king in 1199, and the title was held thereafter by the monarchs of England. Under the Crown of Ireland Act 1542 The Lordship of Ireland was raised into the Kingdom of Ireland. The Kingdom of Ireland continued after the Acts of Union 1707 which united the kingdoms of England and Scotland. During the reign of George III of the United Kingdom the Kingdoms of Great Britain and of Ireland merged to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland by the terms of the Act of Union 1800.
 * From King John (of the House of Plantagenet) to King Henry VIII (of the House of Tudor), English monarchs were also Lords of Ireland.
 * From King Henry VIII to Queen Anne (of the House of Stuart), English monarchs were also King or Queen of Ireland.
 * From Queen Anne to King George III (of the House of Hanover), British monarchs were also King or Queen of Ireland.
 * Note: In 1506 Lambert Simnel, an English pretender to the throne, was crowned Edward VI of Ireland

British monarchy to Irish monarchy
With the passage in 1931 of the Statute of Westminster, the British monarch (that is, King George V in his British council, parliament, and courts) ceased to have dominion over Ireland; only the monarch in right of Ireland had sovereignty over that realm, advised by Irish ministers and acting in his Irish parliament and courts only, though the monarch of Ireland and the monarch of the United Kingdom (and the monarch of all the Dominions and later Commonwealth realms) were the same person. This arrangement lasted through the reigns of George V, Edward VIII, and George VI.

The Republic of Ireland Act proclaimed Ireland a republic in 1949 by removing the remaining duties of the monarch. Ireland consequently withdrew from the British Commonwealth.

Northern Ireland continues as a constituent part of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.