Sinn Féin was established in 1905 by Arthur Griffith as a monarchist party inspired by the Austro-Hungarian Compromise which sought to create an Anglo-Irish dual monarchy. During the party's 1917 Ard Fheis, disputes between monarchists and republicans resulted in an agreement that the question of a republic versus a monarchy would be settled by public referendum after independence was achieved provided that no member of the House of Windsor could become king. As a result, the Irish Republic had no head of state during the Irish War of Independence until the Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiations when Éamon de Valera raised his status to President of the Irish Republic in order to grant himself equal status to George V.