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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.
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.
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 in 1177. The title came to be held by the monarchs of England when John later, and unexpectedly, inherited the English crown in 1199. 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.
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,[1][2] 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.
In 1949 twenty-six traditional counties in the southern, north western, western and eastern parts of Ireland became the Republic of Ireland thereby removing all reference to the British Crown. Those remaining traditional counties of the northern part of the island remain part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.