RODERICK  , or RuADR1 (d . 1198),

king of Connaught and high king of Ireland, was the son of Turlough (Tordelbach) O'Connor, king of Connaught, who had obtained the over-kingship in 1151, but had lost it again in 1154 through the rise of Muirchertach O'Lochlainn in Ulster . Roderick succeeded to Connaught in 1156, and after ten years' fighting won back the title of high king . His ill-advised persecution of Dermot (Diarmait MacMurchada), king of Leinster, furnished the pretext for the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland . Roderick endeavoured to expel the invaders, but was driven behind the Shannon . He delayed his submission to Henry IL until 1175, when a treaty was concluded at Windsor . Roderick, under this agreement, held Connaught as the vassal of England, and exercised lordship over all the native kings and chiefs of Ireland; in return he undertook to pay an annual tribute . The treaty did not put an end to the wars of the Norman adventurers against Connaught and Roderick's dependants . He held out till 1191; but then, weary of strife, retired to the cloister . He died in 1198, the last of the high kings of Ireland . See Giraldus Cambrensis, Opera, vol. v . (Rolls Series) ; G .

Orpen's

Song of Dermot and the Earl (1892) ; W . Stubbs's edition of Benedictus Abbas (Rolls Series) ; Miss K . Norgate's England under the Angevin Kings, vol. ii . (1887) .