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In 1155, Pope Adrian IV issued a papal bull Laudabiliter giving the English King Henry II lordship over Ireland. The bull is the subject of academic dispute over its authenticity; the original document is no longer in existence, only later copies exist. Ernest Henderson noted that "in form and wording it differs from other papal bulls of the time."

The wording of the copy of the bull that has survived by implication reinforces a papal claim to England equally with Ireland, as an island: "There is indeed no doubt, as thy Highness doth also acknowledge, that Ireland and all other islands which Christ the Sun of Righteousness has illumined, and which have received the doctrines of the Christian faith, belong to the jurisdiction of St. Peter and of the holy Roman Church."

Henry invaded Ireland in 1171, using the papal bull to claim sovereignty over the island, and forced the Cambro-Norman warlords and some of the Gaelic Irish kings to accept him as their overlord.

Adrian's successor, Pope Alexander III ratified the grant of Irish lands to Henry in 1172, and Irish bishops at the Synod of Cashel accepted the bull.

Henry awarded his Irish territories to his younger son John with the title Dominus Hiberniae ("Lord of Ireland"). When John unexpectedly succeeded his brother as King John, the "Kingdom of Ireland" fell directly under the English Crown.

• Selected Documents in Irish History, edited by Josef Lewis Altholz, M.E. Sharpe, Inc. 2000
• Lyttleton, Life of Henry II., vol. v p. 371: text of Laudabiliter asa reprinted in Ernest F. Henderson, Select Historical Documents of the Middle Ages (London : George Bell and Sons) 1896 with Henderson's note: "That a papal bull was dispatched to England about this time and concerning this matter is certain. That this was the actual bull sent is doubted by many".

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