30 November 862 AD: Mael Sechnaill mac Maele Ruanaid rí hÉrenn uile ‘King of all Ireland’ died on this day. A true warrior king he fought his many enemies long and hard but was never defeated in battle. His grandfather had been the king of Tara, a title that carried great status with the Irish, but only in the hands of those who could use it effectively. He was born into a  family group of high status - An Clann Cholmáin - a southern branch of the powerful dynasty the O’Neills/ Uí Néills. Their territory was based in roughly where Co Westmeath is today. By the time he reached young adulthood he was already blooded having first killed his cousin and then his own brother to secure his place in the first family of the Clann and then his own position as it’s leader. He had also gained fame by capturing the Viking chief Turgesius & drowning him in Lough Lough Owel (Irish: Loch Uail ).

His big breakthrough came in the year 846 when the king of the northern O’Neills and the High King of Ireland Niall mac Áeda was drowned near Armagh. By the long tradition of sharing the High Kingship between the northern & southern branches of the family it was now Mael Sechnaill’s turn to take that title as his own but for some reason now not alltogether clear he did not take up the reins of Power until the following year. That was not the end of his troubles with Vikings as they had allies with the southern O’Neills esp one Cináed mac Conaing the king of Knowth on the Boyne river. This man raided deep into O’Neill territory and caused mayhem.

The Annals of Ulster state:

Cinaed son of Conaing, king of Cianacht, rebelled against Mael Sechnaill with the support of the foreigners, and plundered the Uí Néill from the Sinann to the sea, both churches and states, and he deceitfully sacked the island of Loch Gabor, levelling it to the ground, and the oratory of Treóit, with seventy people in it, was burned by him.

AOU  850

In the year 850  Mael Sechnaill  met him & another local king Tigernach mac Fócartai in order to settle their differences put a more united front against the Vikings of Dublin. The end result though that Cináed mac Conaing was bound & drowned in a pit at the behest of the other two kings. This was "in spite of the guarantees of the nobles of Ireland, and the successor of Patrick [i.e. the abbot of Armagh] in particular".  AOU

 Presumably this conference was organised by the Church but they could hardly have been satisfied with the outcome with one of the participants there under sacred protection ending up dead in a watery grave! After this there was a major Royal conference at Armagh, the major ecclesiastical site in Ireland under the auspices of the Church but what exactly was decided is none too sure. 

A royal conference in Ard Macha, between Mael Sechnaill, accompanied by the nobles of Leth Cuinn, and Matudán with the nobles of Conchobor's Province, and Diarmait and Fethgna with the congregation of Patrick, and Suairlech with the clerics of Mide.

AOU

Here Mael Sechnaill met the current king of Ulster/ Ulaid [by then roughly Antrim & Down] Matudán mac Muiredaig and struck a deal whereby the Ulstermen would provide warriors to Mael Sechnaill to augment his campaigns elsewhere in Ireland. 

With his rule secured at home and Ulster in reluctant alliance Mael Sechnaill  turned his attention south to the powerful Kingdom of Munster/Muma with it’s royal seat at Cashel. Here the fractious Eóganachta extended family ruled over a large part of the South of Ireland. However to complicate matters a new proto kingdom has emerged roughly where Co Kilkenny is today called Ossory/Osraige under king Cerball mac Dúnlainge. To have a free hand in Munster Mael Sechnaill needed to either overwhelm this potential threat or make a deal of some sort to placate Cerball. He chose the latter option. The annals record expeditions to Munster to obtain tribute and hostages in 854, 856 and in 858, when Mael's army killed several kings, wasted the land and marched south to the sea in his attempts to obtain the submission to the Munster kings. The Annals of Ulster record that in 854:

Mael Sechnaill, king of Temair marched against the men of Mumu to Inneóin na nDéise, and took hostages from them.

That is Mael as king of Tara marched into Munster and took hostages from people basically where Co Waterford is now.

He also had further troubles in Munster with both the native inhabitants and also with the Vikings. 

U858.4

Mael Sechnaill son of Mael Ruanaid came with the men of Ireland to the lands of Mumu and halted for ten nights at Niam; and he plundered them to the south as far as the sea, after their kings had been defeated at Carn Lugdach, Maelchrón son of Muiredach, king of the Déisi, being left dead there. Mael Sechnaill then took the hostages of Mumu from Belat Gabráin to Inis Tarbnai off the Irish coast, and from Dún Cermna to Ára Airthir.

But by 859 Cerball and Máel Sechnaill had fallen out and the king of Ossory allied with Vikings from Dublin to attack into Meath and perhaps as far north as Armagh. A general assembly of kings and clerics in 859 at Rahugh in County Westmeath settled matters by detaching Osraige from Munster. 

U859.3

A royal conference was held at Ráith Aeda Meic Bric of the nobles of Ireland, including Mael Sechnaill, king of Temair, and Fethgna, successor of Patrick, and Suairlech, successor of Finnia, to make peace and amity between the men of Ireland, and as a result of that meeting Cerball, king of Osraige, gave his full dues to Patrick's congregation and his successor, and the Osraige were alienated to Leth Cuinn,* and Mael Guala, king of Mumu, warranted the alienation.

* Conn's half ie. the northern half of Ireland from roughly Dublin to Galway. The southern half was known Leath Moga (Mugh's half).

Basically King Mael ensured that the conference was held in his own neck of the woods as it were and that the leading churchmen of Armagh & Clonfert [in his own territory] were present to seal the deal that detached Ossory from the control of Cashel, the Royal site of Munster and became an independent entity under the protection Mael himself. The king of Ossory may have married Mael-Sechnaill’s daughter Ailbi on this occasion.

With all that settled Máel Sechnaill then fell out with his northern kinsmen the northern O’Neill led by the great Áed mac Néill aka Áed Findliath. In 860 he led an army raised from Munster, Leinster and Connacht against the northern Uí Néill. The annals say that Áed Findliath and Flann mac Conaing, brother of Cináed, led a night attack on Máel Sechnaill's camp near Armagh which was beaten off with heavy loss to Áed and Flann. Further fighting between Áed and Máel Sechnaill is reported in 861, and again in 862.

That must have been enough fighting for any man in his lifetime! We don’t know much about the character & personality of Máel but he comes across as a man who never took NO for an answer and preferred the sword to the pen to settle things. 

Máel Sechnaill died peacefully on 30 November 862. His obituary in the Annals of Ulster states:

U862.5

Mael Sechnaill m. Mael Ruanaigh mc. Donnchadha mc. Domnaill mc Murchadha Midhi mc. Diarmada Den m. Oirmedhaigh Chaeich mc. Conaill Guthbhinn mc. Shuibhne mc. Colmain Moir mc. Diarmada Derg mc. Fergusa Cerrbeoil, ri h-Erenn uile, .ii. kl. Decimbris, .ii. feria, anno regni suo .xui., defunctus est.

U862.5

Mael Sechnaill son of Mael Ruanaid son of Donnchad son of Domnall son of Murchad of Mide son of Diarmait the Harsh son of Airmedach the One-eyed son of Conall of the Sweet Voice, son of Suibne son of Colmán the great son of Diarmait the red son of Fergus the wrymouth, king of all Ireland,  on the second of the Kalends of December, the second feria .. in the 16th year of his reign is no more.

From the Annals of the Four Masters we have this Eulogy: 

M860.10

Maelseachlainn, son of Maelruanaidh, son of Donnchadh, Monarch of Ireland, died on the thirteenth day of November precisely, on Tuesday, after he had been sixteen years in the sovereignty. Of his death was sung:

Mournfully is spread

her veil of grief over Ireland,

Since the chieftain of our race has perished,

Maelseachlainn of the flowing Sinainn.*

Many a moan in every place,

it is a mournful news among the Gaeidhil;

Red wine has been spilled into the valley,

Erin's monarch has died.

* the Shannon river