Life of Lord Chancellor Talbot

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CHAPTER VI,

Life Of Lord Chancellor Talbot From His Birth To His Refusal To Surrender The Great Seal In 1432. **

The infant son of Henry V. became King of England and Lord of Ireland in 1422. The Talbot influence was then very great in both countries. Sir John Talbot, Lord Furnival, was high in favour with those in power, and his brother Richard was Archbishop of Dublin, then confined to natives of England. A statute of the English Parliament (the last over which Cardinal Beaufort presided in the reign of Henry V., A.D. 1417) shows the hostility with which the English, at that time, regarded the natives of Ireland. It enacts ‘that none of the Irish nation be elected an Archbishop, Bishop, Abbot, or Prior; and whoever promoted such to these ecclesiastical preferments, or brought any such Irish rebels to Parliaments, Councils, or other assemblies among the English, should have all their temporal estates seized into the King’s hands, till they had paid the fines due for such offence.’

Archbishop Talbot was descended from a house no less remarkable in the field than in the senate. The name of Talbot has ever been distinguished in the annals of England and Ireland, and the subject of my present memoir was a worthy scion of the noble stock. Richard was brother to John Talbot, the renowned warrior whom King Henry VI. advanced in horiours for his martial deeds in France, and who embodied the triple title of Earl of Shrewsbury, Waterford, and Wexford. [On the death of his elder brother, Gilbert Talbot, in 1417, and that of his only child, Ankaretta, in 1422, Sir John Talbot became Lord of Wexford. - Gilbert’s Viceroys, p. 315. And in 1447 had a grant of the Earldom of Waterford. He was also Earl of Shrewsbury.]When he had completed his education as a divinity student, the young priest was not long unemployed.

In 1407, the Rev. Richard Talbot was collated to the Precentorship of Hereford, and in 141, on the death of Archbishop Fleming, the vacant mitre of Armagh and Primacy was designed for him, but it appears that, having neglected to expedite his confirmation within the allotted time, another ecclesiastic, Dr. Swain, became Primate in his place. The disappointment to Dr. Talbot was not destined to be of long duration. In the following year, 1417, he was appointed Archbishop of Dublin, and this time he did not lose the mitre by apathy. His consecration during the year is duly recorded in the White Book of Christchurch. [Compiled in the sixteenth century, by Thomas Fitch, sub-prior.]

In 1419, the Archbishop was appointed deputy to his brother, Sir John Talbot, Viceroy of Ireland, who had procured leave of absence from Ireland. He was soon called on to act severely against some of the chief nobles of the colony, and he arrested, at Slane, Sir Christopher Preston, Lord of Gormanstown, the Earl of Kildare, and Sir John Bellew, for holding illegal communication with the Prior of Kilmainham.

In Preston’s possession was found a parchment roll, on which was engrossed an ordinance of Henry II. prescribing the mode of holding Parliaments in Ireland. [The date at which Parliaments were held in Ireland is still a moot point. In the ‘Life and Death of the Irish Parliament,’ by the Right Hon. James Whiteside, now Lord Chief Justice of the Queen’s Bench, that able lawyer states, ‘no Parliament was held for one hundred and forty years in Ireland;’ but he rests this statement entirely on the authority of Sir John Davies and Lord Coke; while the Essay on Irish Parliaments, by Dr. Monck Mason, argues that, ‘many of the assertions contained in the celebrated speech of Sir John Davies are contradicted by recorded facts. It is therefore a document tipon which no historian should rely.’ Dr. Mason also says, ‘The Modus Tenendi Parliamenta in Hibernia was sent over to Ireland by Henry II., as a direction for the regulation of Parliaments there; that the original roll of the Irish Modus was seen by Lord Coke, who gives full credit to the earliest antiquity assigned to it.’

• ‘Mason’s Essay on the Parliaments of Ireland, p. 6.] This document was in the same year produced before the Lord Deputy and Council at Trim, and a copy of it ordered to be made, and attested with the Great Seal of Ireland. It is stated the authenticity of the roll found in Preston’s hands has been questioned, but the official copy and exemplification of it was subsequently accepted as an authority on the subject of which it treats. [Gilbert’s Viceroy’s of Ireland, p. 311.]

I find a mode of deciding causes by sharper weapons than are contained in the arsenal of the Courts, was in use in Ireland. In 1420, a judicial combat, or trial by wager of battle, was fought at Waterford, between two cousins of the Earl of Ormond, who presided as Judge on this occasion. It was a bloody duel, for one of the combatants was slain, and the other carried wounded to Kilkenny. [Ibid.] This mode of ordeal was not in use among the ancient Irish, but was introduced by the Anglo-Normans, and remained in force until the beginning of the present century, when it was abolished by Act of Parliament.

As a curious instance of the insecurity of these times I may relate that, Adam Veldon, Chief Clerk of the Court of Chancery, petitioned for the King’s aid, as, in a certain hosting made by the O’Connors and De Berminghams, upon the liege subjects in the country, he was taken prisoner and detained until, to his utter ruin, he was forced to pay ten pounds of silver for his ransom. [Ibid. 312.] We cannot be surprised, in a colonial parliament held before John, the fourth Earl of Ormond, as Viceroy, the usual statement of grievances was agreed upon to be laid before the King; setting forth that the land was for the most part wasted by Irish enemies and English rebels, and by the extortions, oppressions, and non-payments of divers lieutenants, their deputies, and other great persons. That ‘by default of the due execution of your Highness’s laws your land is descended to so great a decline that it will never be relieved, and your enemies and rebels chastised without your most sovereign and gracious presence within your said land, as it appears to your poor lieges: but the same your land and your lieges there, in a short time will be utterly lost and for ever destroyed, which God forbid.’ They complained of misappropriation of the royal revenues - that landholders, artificers, and labourers were daily departing for England in great numbers, by which the husbandry of the land was much injured; that the offices of the Exchequer were held by illiterate persons, who knew not how to write, and performed their duties by deputy, some holding several appointments in the same Court, and extorting heavy fees from the suitors in order to pay high rents to their principals. It appears that there was, at this time, considerable unwillingness displayed by the Governors of the English Inns of Courts to admit students from Ireland, which made another item in this long list of grievances, and they prayed the Governors and Companies of the Inns of Court might be ordered to receive persons of good and gentle birth of the English of Ireland. The memorial concluded with the following strange petition:-

‘Your lieges show, to your most high and Royal Majesty, that whereas, at the first coming of your most noble predecessor, King Richard II., to this land, most of the great chieftains of the Irish nation, that is to say, MacMurragh, O’Neill, O’Brien of Thomond, O’Conner of Connaught, and divers other Irish, most humbly, and of their free will, submitted and became liegemen to him and his heirs, Kings of England, for themselves, their children, kindred, and people for ever, and at that time did then liege homage; and also, for greater surety they bound themselves, of their own free will, by divers instruments, as appears in various forms, to the most Holy Father the Pope, and his successors, for the firmly keeping their allegiance, the which instruments remain in your Treasury of England, as your lieges suppose; but since that time the said persons openly became outlaws, and rebels, and wasted and destroyed your hieges, against the form promised. Your lieges, therefore, pray that you will write to and inform our Most Holy Father the Pope, by your most gracious letters, the matters and things aforesaid, with these circumstances, that a crusade be made against the Irish enemies, for the relief and salvation of the land, and of your lieges in that behalf, and in perpetual destruction of these enemies, by the aid of God.” [Gilbert’s Viceroys of Ireland, pp. 313, 314.]

We do not learn how this humane and pious project was received by his Most Gracious Majesty, then an infant of a few years old, or if he entreated his Most Holy Father to decree a crusade against the wild Irish, for the annals of the time make no further mention of it. I insert it as a curious historical document, throwing light upon the feelings with which the natives were, for a long time, regarded by the English.

In 1423, Archbishop Talbot was appointed Lord Justice, and, in the same year, Lord Chancellor of Ireland. [Pat. West., May 19, 1423. Sworn July 13, in his palace at St. Sepulchre, before the Privy Council.] In 1424, he was awarded, for his services to the State, a grant of the revenues of the estates of Matthew St. John, deceased, which had devolved upon the King by reason of the minority of the heir, William St. John, together with the marriage of said ward, and so from heir to heir, until some one should attain age, and obtain livery of said estates.

In the previous year, 1423, Edmond de Mortimer, who had loyally served King Henry IV. in his wars in England and France, was nominated Viceroy of Ireland, with an annual allowance of five thousand marks. As such Viceroy, he executed letters patent at Ludlow Castle, appointing Edward Dantsey, Bishop of Meath, his deputy in Ireland. This document was produced to the acting Governor, Archbishop Talbot, in the convent of the Franciscans at Drogheda; but he, as Lord Justice and Chancellor, declined to recognise the appointment, which he considered was illegal, and, on consulting the council, they also doubted the power of the Viceroy to appoint a deputy under his private Seal. A writ was then obtained from Westminster, produced by Sir Thomas Stynt, directing Dantsey to be admitted, whereupon the Lord Justice Chancellor, fortified by the advice of the Judges held he was not legally appointed, but for the public service, and for peace’ sake, the Chancellor resigned his office of Lord Justice in favour of the Bishop of Meath. The Viceroy himself arrived in Ireland in 1424, and entered into friendly relations with many of the native chiefs, but his mission of good will was not destined to be of long duration, he died of the plague in January 1425, and Sir John Talbot, the brother of the Lord Chancellor, became Viceroy.

A great struggle was going on in England at this period, to limit the jurisdiction of the Court of Chancery. It was waged, at one time, during the reign of Henry V., when a petition was presented by the House of Commons to the King, praying ‘that no causes should be drawn thither which might be determined in the Courts of Common Law.’ [Lord Campbell’s Lives of the Lord Chancellors of England, vol. i. p. 322.] It was revived in the reign of Henry VI., and if the prayer of the petition was complied with the country would have lost the benefit derived from the equitable interference. [Ibid. p. 331.] The reply left the Chancellor uncontrolled jurisdiction in cases of Equity.

The Chancellor had a Commission of Justice and guardian of the peace of the county of Dublin with various powers. These occupied his attention, and, in the ensuing year, prevented his going Circuit whereon he assigned the Chief Justice, Bray; and second Justice of ireland, Roger Hawkenshawe, to hold the assizes in his stead, without the Great Seal, saving, however, the fees of said Seal. [Rot. in Canc. Hib.] In 1426, he reduced the proxies that were previously paid by the Prior and Convent of the Holy Trinity to the Archbishop of Dublin from five marks to two and a half, which concession was ratified by a Bull of Pope Eugene. As the charges of defending the borders of the pale around Dublin from the incursions of the Wicklow Irish were very burthensome, the Archbishop had a grant of 40l. from the Treasury for paying men-at-arms, and archers, horse and foot. [D’Alton’s Lives of the Archbishops of Dublin, p. 155.] In April 142, Talbot was removed from office, and William Fitz Thomas appointed Lord Chancellor. [2 Patent, April 25, 1426.] The Great Seal having been held by him for a short time, only three months, his patent was revoked and Sir Richard Fitz Eustace appointed Lord Chancellor. [Patent, Sept. 10, 1426.]

The Archbishop was speedily reappointed Chancellor. Fitz Eustace was only a month or two Keeper of the Great Seal when his appointment was revoked and Talbot again nominated. [Patent, October 2, 1426. Sworn in January 12, 1427.] A Parliament was held at Dublin in 1429 before Sir John Sutton, fourth Baron of Dudley, who had borne the royal standard at the funeral of Henry V. The chief object of former Parliaments appears to complain of the Irish Government, but this was an exception, for this Parliament despatched Henry Fortesque, Chief Justice of the King’s Bench, and Sir Thomas Strange, to England, with a memorial under the Great Seal to be presented to the King. They represented the inroads of the Irish in every part, but against these enemies the Viceroy manfully and diligently warred; burned and destroyed their corn and houses, broke their castles, cut their woods and passes, made great slaughter and much impoverished them; so that the lieges stood in good rest from the malice of their foes, and that their persons, corn, houses, and goods, were well protected. They besought the King to thank the Lieutenant, ‘as he right well deserved, thus causing him to have the more courage to continue his good and diligent labours. They begged he might have hasty remittance of his allowance, to enable him to pay the people. That, before this time, the land hath stood in great likeliness of injury by often changing, and the misgovernance of the Lieutenant and their Deputies,’ adding:- ’ We beseech you that while we stand well, such change be not made hereafter, for fear of peril of losing the lands as it has been of late.’ That as false accusations, and reports, had been lately made to the King and Council in England respecting the Irish State officials, the Parliament prayed such reports, which caused great hinderances, and heaviness, might not be received, but that these propagators should be obliged to find sufficient surety to abide by their statements, which should be examined by the Parliament, or Great Council in Ireland, and the result certified thence under the Great Seal. They complained, that divers clerics, merchants, and other honest persons of the King’s land in Ireland, had been robbed, beaten, and imprisoned while travelling from Chester to Coventry, Oxford, and London, and they requested that the liege people might be admitted to study in the Inns of Court, in England, as in former times, for that, otherwise, after time death of the existing lawyers, none would be found in Ireland acquainted with the laws of England.

A counter-statement was sent to the King anonymously, without the knowledge of the Viceroy or the Council. It asserted the disasters which had befallen the land, were the fruit of the misconduct of the nobles, and gentry, who incited the Irish and disloyal English to perpetrate burnings and other enormities, and refused to march with the Viceroy against the enemies, though summoned by royal writs. The suggestion of not changing the Viceroy, they declared an illegal effort to circumscribe the power of the Crown, and that the settlement was never in so precarious condition as at that time. It was contended, the sole prerogative of the King was to deal with complaints against Viceroys, and, as for parliamentary certificates of their conduct, no reliance could be placed on such certificates, because the nobles and great men of the settlement filled the Parliament with their own nominees, who had little regard for the welfare of Monarch or subject. That while the Earl of Ormond deserved thanks for some service, he was then pursuing courses destructive to the English, that hasty payment to the Viceroy was then impossible, in consequence of the many subsidies and loans which bad already been contributed by the lieges.

The receipt of two such contradictory memorials must have been extremely perplexing to the King of England. He transmitted a copy of the latter to Sir John Sutton, his Viceroy, and that nobleman endeavoured to ascertain from whom these complaints emanated. Sir John produced these articles before the Chancellor, and other members of the Council at Drogheda, in April 1429, and they being read, the Chancellor asked the members, individually, ‘whether they were cognisant of or participators in the compilation and transmissioi of the documents?’ Each returned a negative answer, the Chancellor was interrogated in turn by the Viceroy, and he, too, replied, he ‘had no knowledge of the document.’ Sir John Sutton then directed the enrolment of the whole affair, and sent a copy of the enrolment to the King, with a declaration, that his Council in Ireland repudiated any attempt to deceive his Highness.

The contention between Chancellors and other magnates was not confined to Ireland. The rivalry between the English Chancellor, Cardinal Beaufort, and Humphry Duke of Gloucester, the Protector, created serious riots in London in October 1425, and articles of impeachment were exhibited by the Duke against the Chancellor. [Lord Campbell’s Chancellors of England, vol. i. p. 336.]

Whether Archbishop Talbot considered the Primate, Dr. Swain, had supplanted him, in respect to the See of Armagh I cannot say, but a very hostile feeling prevailed between the Archbishop of Dublin and the Primate of all Ireland.

In D’Alton’s Memoir of Dr. Talbot, we read:- ‘In 1429, John Swain, Archbishop of Armnagh, having been surmmoned to appear in a Parliament held in the province of Leinster, made return that he could not personally attend without violation of his oath, taken at his consecration, to defend the rights of the See, and that he was impeded by the contradiction and rebellion of the Archbishop and Clergy of Dublin, on the articles of bearing his Cross, and asserting his Primatial Jurisdiction in the Province of Leinster.’ [D’Alton’s Lives of the Archbishops of Dublin.]

For many years a question of precedency was in dispute between the Prelates of Armagh and Dublin, which, however, was ultimately decided in favour of Armagh.

A more serious charge, however, at least one involving more penal consequences to the Chancellor Archbishop, was made in this year. Talbot had a Royal mandate, reciting, that the King was led to understand that divers of his Irish subjects, arrayed in arms, held unlawful meetings, and traversed the country from place to place, causing injury to the King, and his liege subjects, all which evil doings the Archbishop of Dublin was alleged to aid and abet; he was therefore commanded forthwith to put a stop to such meetings, and without fail to appear before the King and Privy Council at an early day, to answer such matters as might be charged against him. [Ibid. pp. l55.]

It is hardly within my province to trace the ecclesiastical changes which the Archbishop promoted, and which are duly recorded in D’Alton’s work. [Ibid. pp. 155-6-7] He was about being superseded, but evidently was reluctant to part with the office of Lord Chancellor. It is related that, in 1432, Thomas Chase, who had been appointed his successor, presented his letters patent in the presence of Sir Christopher Plunkett the Lord Deputy, in the Chapter room of the house of the Dominicans, and required the Archbishop to deliver up the Great Seal, the Archbishop took exception to the letters patent, which he contended, did not sufficiently substantiate such an intention, and declined giving the same, but consigned the Seal to the custody of the Lord Deputy, until the King’s will should be better ascertained, and Talbot was allowed to remain Chancellor.

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