"Mensal" Quotes from Famous Books
... supreme over five ri-mor-tuathas—roughly, a fourth of Ireland. These, with their respective principal supporters, elected the ard-ri—"supreme king", of Ireland, who for ages held his court and national assemblies at Tara and enjoyed the kingdom of Meath for his mensal land. Usually the election was not direct to the kingship, but to the position of tanaiste—"second" (in authority), heir-apparent to the kingship. This was also the rule in the learned professions and "noble" arts, which were similarly endowed with free land. The most competent among those ... — The Glories of Ireland • Edited by Joseph Dunn and P.J. Lennox |