The Princes of Ireland

Yesterday, I finished The Princes of Ireland, the first book in the Dublin Saga by Edward Rutherfurd. I enjoyed this book even more than Sarum, the first of his books I read. Perhaps it's in part because I now expect to jump through time from one set of characters to the next. It's always a little sad to leave the characters in whom I've grown interested.

Although I know historical fiction has limits, I did learn a fair bit about Irish history. To whit:

1. Vikings settled in Ireland and intermarried with the Celtic people. (Yes, I know, this should have been obvious to me, but I'd just never thought about it.)
2. The English came to Ireland in the first place because a vassal of the English king went to Ireland as a mercenary to fight for one of the Celtic kings who was trying to take the position of High King. When the vassal ended up marrying the Celtic king's daughter, inheriting his position and eventually becoming High King himself, King Henry II went to Ireland to assert his authority over his vassal (and therefore over Ireland).
3. The Irish church had some curious traditions, including priests who married and monasteries that were associated with prominent families (the position of abbot was passed from father to son).
4. In medieval times, your rights depended on whether you were considered Irish or English, but that designation was not as straightforward as you might think. Sometimes if you were prominent enough and wealthy enough, the rulers would overlook your actual ancestry.

This book covered from 430 A.D. to the reign of Henry VIII. I'm looking forward to reading the second book, which will take me to 1922.