War on Porn: Legislative Solutions Have Limits

The Normans found Ireland much more difficult to conquer than England. By the time William the Conqueror landed on the southern coast of Sussex in 1066, England had been consolidated into a single kingdom by Alfred the Great and his successors. All the invaders had to do was defeat the king and his supporters in battle and the whole kingdom would take it as a sign that England had fallen to a new ruler.

Ireland was different. It was much less united and not at all centralized. There were many warring tribes on the island, all of whom proclaimed their own king to be the rightful “high king of Ireland.” Consequently, there was no single, central victory the Norman invaders could win — no Irish version of the Battle of Hastings — to signal to the rest of the native Irish that the game was up and that they should lay down their arms. The kings of each petty tribe had to be fought and defeated one by one until total military conquest was achieved.

About the Author

Cameron Hilditch

Cameron Hilditch was a 2020-2021 William F. Buckley Fellow in Political Journalism at National Review Institute.

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The Normans found Ireland much more difficult to conquer than England. By the time William the Conqueror landed on the southern coast of Sussex in 1066, England had been consolidated into a single kingdom by Alfred the Great and his successors. All the invaders had to do was defeat the king and his supporters in battle and the whole kingdom would take it as a sign that England had fallen to a new ruler.

Ireland was different. It was much less united and not at all centralized. There were many warring tribes on the island, all of whom proclaimed their own king to be the rightful “high king of Ireland.” Consequently, there was no single, central victory the Norman invaders could win — no Irish version of the Battle of Hastings — to signal to the rest of the native Irish that the game was up and that they should lay down their arms. The kings of each petty tribe had to be fought and defeated one by one until total military conquest was achieved.