Background
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In 1155, Pope Adrian IV, the only English pope, issued a papal bull (known as Laudabiliter) that gave Henry II permission to invade Ireland as a means of strengthening the Papacy's control over the Irish Church. The Laudabiliter enforced Papal suzerainty not only over Ireland but of all islands off the European coast, including Britain, in virtue of the Constantinian Donation. References to Laudabiliter become more frequent in the later Tudor period when the researches of the Renaissance humanist scholars cast doubt on the historicity of the Donation. But even if the Donation was spurious, other documents such as Dictatus papae (1075–87) show that by the 12th century the Papacy felt it had political powers superior to all kings and local rulers.
The Norman invasion of Ireland thus had the backing of the Papacy. Pope Alexander III, who was Pope at the time of the invasion, ratified the Laudabiliter and gave Henry dominion over the "barbarous nation" of Ireland so that its "filthy practices" may be abolished, its Church brought into line, and that the Irish pay their tax to Rome.
Read more about this topic: Norman Invasion Of Ireland
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