The warrior has down the centuries been represented as part of the king's retinue or closely attached to the king and his court. When the king did battle he was, as a commander, utterly dependent on his warrior. And when the king wanted a favourable account of his triumph in that battle he was similarly dependent on his court-poet and/or the monastic learned of an allied monastery. In Ireland, however, the written discourse about the king as a commander and warrior is problematic. There is obviously a desire to present the king as a just judge and mediator and to distinguish between him and the warrior as such. When the king as commander of war is touched upon it is done normatively as is clearly demonstrated in the seventh-century Irish text Audacht Morainn ('Morann's testament'). In this literary admonition of just conduct for a king, the king's role as warrior is played down and kept at a distance. The warrior, of course, represents a less complex character than that of the king and is of minor importance to the formulation of power and sovereignty.

The project examined this ambiguity in the presentation of Christian kings, comparing the four traditions covered by the project, Irish, Welsh, Norse and Old-English.