Chancellors during Henry VII's Reign.

CHAPTER X. **

Of The Chancellors Of Ireland During The Reign Of Henry VII. **

The reigns of Edward V. and Richard III. offer few points for remark in the Lives of the Irish Chancellors. The history of those days has little to interest the legal reader. Strifes among the English settlers and conflicts of native chiefs proved a great barrier to civilisation. An able Irish writer thus described this period of our annals. ‘At this time, we read, not only of native clans divided and warring amongst each other; but it is also quite usual to find the same sept, and even members of the same family, arrayed as open and irreconcilable enemies. Factions, such as these, planted the seeds of perennial discord, weakened the natural bonds of kindred or friendship, and produced frequent examples of most pernicious demoralisation; inviting aggression from without, and fostering internal enmities, they served to effect and perpetuate hopeless ruin and national thraldom. [Catechism of Irish History, p. 187.]

The state of Ireland may be inferred from an Act passed in 1484, reciting that divers benefices and advowsons of the Sees, were situated’ amongst Irish enemies, and as no Englishman could inhabit the said benefices, and divers English clerks who were enabled to have cure of souls, were not expert in the Irish language, and such of them as were, disdained to inhabit amongst the Irish people, and others dared not, by which means divine service was diminished and the cure of souls neglected; it was therefore enacted, that prelates might for two years collate Irish clerks to the said benefices, without any impeachment from the King. Which privilege it was necessary to renew to the Archbishop of Dublin in 1493.

When such was the state of the Church, it is in vain to look for accounts of the legal tribunals, and the Chancellor, I suspect, was little troubled with equity suits.

A question of much importance was submitted for the consideration of the Irish legal officials. Great doubts existed respecting the proper manner of electing a Lord Justice or Governor of Ireland for the time being, in case of the death or absence of the Viceroy. It was the opinion of some the election should be made by seven members of the Council; others thought it should be by the spiritual and temporal peers, together with the Council, and the most honourable English subjects of the three counties adjoining Dublin. Lord Grey’s Parliament undertook to set these conflicting opinions at rest, by enacting that in future, the election of Lord Justice should be by the majority of an assembly composed of tile King’s Council, the Archbishops of Armagh and Dublin, the Bishops of Meath and Kildare, and all the Parliamentary Lords spiritual and temporal of Dublin, Meath, Louth, and Kildare, specially summoned upon fifteen days’ notice to meet for this purpose at Dublin or Drogheda. [Gilbert’s Viceroys of Ireland, p. 40.]

In 1479, on the death of Prince George, Edward IV. conferred the Viceroyalty of Ireland on his second son, Richard Duke of York.

The defeat and death of Richard III. at Bosworth, placed Henry Tudor on the English throne. The Geraldines and indeed, the most powerful Anglo-Irish, were deeply grieved at the fate of a son of their beloved Duke of York, and gave ready credence to the report that the Yorkist heir to the throne, Richard, Earl of Warwick, son of the Duke of Clarence, had escaped from the Tower of London. Shortly afterwards a boy of noble aspect and suitable manners was presented to the Earl of Kildare, and other adherents to the House of York as the heir to the English crown. He was subjected to a strict examination respecting his pretensions, and many questions were asked him about the family from which he represented himself as having descended. He answered all in so satisfactory a manner, that no doubt remained that he was the young Earl of Warwick.

In 148, the Great Seal was intrusted to a lay Chancellor, [This is another instance of a Parliamentary grant of the office of Chancellor. Vide Smyth’s Law Officers of Ireland, p. 15.] Sir Thomas Fitz Gerald of Laccagh, brother of the Lord Deputy, and he so entirely believed in the truth of the representation made, that he received the youth into his castle, where he was treated with all deference due to royalty. This naturally induced the adherents of the House of Kildare, men of high station in Church and State to wait upon the Earl of Warwick, and they unhesitatingly undertook to aid him with their lives and fortunes. They next sent agents to England and the Low Countries where Margaret, Dowager Duchess of Burgundy, sister of the late Duke of Clarence, aunt of the Earl, possessed great power and influence.

King Henry VII. was soon made aware of these negotiations, and quickly proclaimed ‘that the youth in Ireland was a plebeian impostor, named Lambert Simnel.’ At the same time a half-idiotic boy was, by royal command, paraded through London as the real Earl of Warwick. This had no effect upon the Irish, who asserted that Henry Tudor sought to delude the English people by the counterfeit Warwick. The portions of Ireland which were ruled by the House of Ormond adhered to the reigning monarch, while the rest of the Anglo-Irish were zealous Yorkists, eager to show their zeal in favour of him they regarded as the youthful Prince. The Duchess of Burgundy declared him her nephew, and provided a force of two thousand men under the command of Martin Swart, a leader of high birth and great military skill. The Earl of Lincoln, Lord Lovel, Sir Henry Bodrigau, John Beaumond, and other English friends of the House of York, accompanied the army of Swart, and reached Dublin in May 1487. Here preparations on a most costly and extensive scale were made for the coronation of the Prince, and all was in readiness by the middle of May. The ceremony took place in Christ Church Cathedral on Whit Sunday, May 24, 1487, when the youth was solemnly crowned as Edward VI. King of England. The great officers of State, the Earl of Kildare, Lord Deputy; Fitz Simon, the Archbishop of Dublin; Sir Thomas Fitz Gerald, the Lord Chancellor; Judges, Privy Counsellors, and others, renounced their allegiance to King Henry VII., and performed the ceremonies of fealty and homage to the young King of England and Lord of Ireland. The Bishop of Meath preached on this occasion a suitable discourse, and the procession from the cathedral to the castle of Dublin passed along streets crowded with enthusiastic subjects of the boy King.

War was speedily declared against the usurper, Henry VII. Sir Thomas Fitz Gerald, of Laccagh, resigned his office of Chancellor to grasp the sword instead of the Great Seal intrusted to Lord Portlester. Sir Thomas was evidently more conversant with fields of fight than the contests of the Court of Chancery, and wielded his weapon instead of the mace. He commanded a division of the troops, raised in Ireland, for the expedition to England. The foreign auxiliaries, under Swart, accompanied by the boy King and his Lords, landed in Lancashire on June 4, 1487. Henry was ready to oppose them with a numerous army. ‘They came in sight of their old foes, near the village of Stoke, about a mile from Newark-on-Trent. On June 10, the battle took place, and the Irish troops, though unprovided with armour of defence, fought valiantly with the English and German allies. For three hours the victory was doubtful, and it was not until Swart -and the valiant Ex-Chancellor, Fitz Gerald, Lord Lincoln, Plunkett, and the greater number of their forces were slain, to the number of 4,000, that the numerical strength of Henry’s army won this hard-fought fight.

The young King fell into the hands of the conqueror.

He was declared to be the child of Thomas Simnel of Oxford, joiner. His fate is involved in obscurity, some writers state he was made a turnspit in the royal kitchen, others that he was confined in the Tower; but this was his last appearance as a royal puppet.

When Lord Portlester resigned the Seals in 1492, they were next given to Alexander Plunkett, [Patent, June 11, 1494. 7 Hen, VII.] who appears, by patent, to have filled the office of Lord Chancellor for some years. The absence of any judicial records prevent my giving an account of his abilities as a Judge. Indeed of this member of the ancient and noble family of Plunkett, I have not been able to obtain much information. The services rendered by Sir Christopher Plunkett, Knight, during the wars of Ireland, procured him the favour of King Henry VI., and he was rewarded with a considerable sum of money. He filled the office of High Sheriff of Meath, and in 1432 was Deputy to Sir Thomas Stanley, Knight, Viceroy of Ireland. Sir Christopher married Joan, only daughter and heiress of Sir Lucas Cusack, Knight, Lord of Killeen, Dunsany, and Geraldston, in the county of Meath, and in her right, Lord of Killeen. His grandson and namesake, Christopher, third Lord of Killeen, married, as his second wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir William Wells, Lord Chancellor of Ireland in 1461. From this union the Chancellor, Alexander Plunkett, was sprung. There is a very interesting account of the way in which Thomas Plunkett, third son of Lord Killeen, obtained an heiress for his wife, which I extract from my unpublished work on ‘Ancestral Houses.’ [Ancestral Houses: Killeen Castle, by J. R. O’Flanagan, M.R.I.A.]

‘While a student of law in the Temple, sauntering through the Temple Gardens, on the banks of the Thames, he observed a beautiful young girl washing clothes in the stream. Attracted by her air of dignity, which appeared ill-matched with her mean attire, he directed his steps towards her, taking care that she should not observe him, and, to his surprise, heard her singing in the dear language of his native country, the venerable Gaelic of Erin, an Irish song. The words were music to his ear, for unlike the degenerate Irish gentry of our time, he spoke his mother tongue, and the names of localities around his father’s historic home gave truthfulness to the statements, of broad lands belonging as of right to her, that lowly yet lovely maiden, who sang by the Thames. The song is thus no less correctly than metrically translated [Rathmore and its Traditions: Dublin University Mag. Sept. 1854.] :-

MARY CRUYS OF RATHMORE.

Ah, Blessed Mary, hear me sighing,

On this cold stone mean labour plying;

Yet Rathmore’s heiress might I name me,

And broad lands, rich and many, claim me.

Gilstown, Rathbeg, names known from childhood;

Fair Johnstown, hard by bog and wildwood;

Ra-tuaffe (Blackwater near it floweth)

And Harton, where the white wheat groweth;

Kilskier, with windows shining brightly;

Pilltown, where race the coursers sprightly;

Bulreask, abundant daisies showing,

Full pails and churns each day bestowing.

Thee, Ballycred, too, mem’ry prises;

Old Oristown to mind arises;

Caultown, near bogs, black turf providing;

Rathconny in its ‘Baron’ priding.

The Twelve Poles, Armabregia follow;

Kilmainham, of the woody hollow;

Cruisetown with lake by sunbeams greeted;

Moydorragh gay, ‘mid fair woods seated.

Still could I speak of townlands many;

Three score along the banks of Nanny *

Twelve by the Boyne, if it were pleasure

To dwell on lost and plundered treasure.

• The River Nanny.

‘The young Irish student of the Temple listened with avidity to the song which floated upwards from the silver Thames. He was aware that eighteen years ago the last Lord of Rathmore, Sir Christopher Cruys, had been done to death by his wicked kinsmen, - that his helpless widow sought safety in flight, and had since given birth to a daughter, but the kinsmen of the deceased Knight repudiated all claims of mother and child, and no one knew where they lived, or how. And here, down by the reeds of the river was, no doubt, the lost heiress of Rathmore. The singularity of the discovery, as well as the desire to redress wrong, so dear to every just mind, decided young Plunkett on his course. He addressed his fair countrywoman in the language of Erin - at once a passport to her confidence

• mentioned his name and lineage - that he was well acquainted with her sad story, and offered to be the assertor of her rights. The young heiress was only too happy to enlist such a champion; she conducted him to their humble abode, and Lady Cruys soon supplied him with the title-deeds and legal proof of the identity of the fair singer, Maria Cruys. In process of time the young Templar was admitted to the bar. He lost no time in taking the necessary ejectment proceedings to recover the Rathmore estates. It was an excellent opportunity for proving his forensic abilities, and they fortunately proved equal to the occasion. He recovered the estates of Rathmore for the rightful owner, and received as his fee the lady and her possessions. He brought his bride in triumph to the ancestral Castle of Killeen, and a memorial of the visit was erected in the demesne - a cross sculptured with figures and inscribed with the names of the successful lawyer and his grateful client:-

THOMAS PLUNKETT

MARIA CRUNS.

He became Sir Thomas Plunkett, Chief Justice of Ireland. The eldest daughter of this marriage, Ismay, married Wellesley of Dungan, county Meath, from which marriage the Dukes of Wellington are descended.

We must now turn our attention to the condition of Ireland and see how it was governed. Almost from the very earliest period in which English rule was exercised in Ireland, it was administered by the heads of the great Anglo-Norman houses, Fitz Gerald of Kildare and Desmond, Butlers, of Ormond, De Burghos of Clanrickarde, De Lacys, St. Lawrance, and other potent lords, who ruled according as they had power to influence or thwart the Lord Deputy. In return for the assistance they rendered the English Government by their influence with the Parliaments, they stipulated for the filling of offices, for titles, pensions, and preferments, lay and ecclesiastical. This caused them to be named Undertakers, and if their demands were considered unfair or impossible for compliance, every influence was used to perplex and baffle the Executive, and force granting of their requests.

Matters stood thus for a considerable period until the accession of a wise statesman, King Henry VII., who, when the battle of Bosworth made him truly sovereign of England, took the first opportunity to examine closely into the affairs of Ireland. As in England he found the power of the Crown almost eclipsed by that of the Privy Council, composed of the highest in rank of Church and State, men most distinguished by personal or professional worth; so in Ireland, the power of the Privy Council not having any check from the presence of the Sovereign, often overruled the Deputy and controlled the Parliament. ‘To be a member of the Privy Council was an honour that was courted; while to be a member of the Parliament was a burden that was shunned.’ [Mason’s Essay on Parliaments in Ireland, p. 2.]

He determined to change this state of affairs; to make the people more free and less dependent on their Lords than they had been. Finding this impossible under the existing laws and customs in Ireland, when the Chief Governor and Council, or the Chief Governor alone, called Parliaments and imposed subsidies, whereby the obedient subjects were weakened and impoverished, and complaints were made by members of both Houses, of the great expense they were forced to incur in travelling to the capital or wherever else the Parliament assembled, the King resolved upon a change. He accordingly sent Sir Edward Poynings, [He was son of Robert Poynings and Elizabeth Paston. Sir Edward was an active supporter of the Tudor dynasty. The King gave him many proofs of his favour. He was a Privy Councillor, a Knight of the Garter, had a command in Flanders, and with Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, went as Ambassador to the Emperor Maximilian. He was sent to Ireland as Deputy for Prince Henry, afterwards Ring Henry VIII.] ‘a right worthy servitor in war and peace,’ to repel Warbeck and meet the Parliament. He landed at Howth on October 1, 1494, and called a Parliament which met at Drogheda, on December 1, 1494. Herein was passed the celebrated Statute X. Henry VII., ‘whereby it is enacted that all statutes late made within the realm of England concerning or belonging to the common weal of the same, from henceforth be deemed good and effectual in the law, and such that be accepted, used, and executed within the land of Ireland in all points, at all times requisite, according to the tenor of the same. And if any statute or statutes have been made within the said land heretofore to the contrary, that they and every of them be made void and of none effect in the law.’

By this statute all the fundamental laws of England were transferred to Ireland. This is eulogised by Lord Coke as ‘a right profitable Act of Parliament.’ The Lord Deputy not content with this desired to go further, and accordingly a law was made, which at, once made the Parliament of Ireland dependent on and subject to the King and Council of England. This famous law, known as Poynings’ law, enacted ‘that no Parliament be holden hereafter in the said land, but at such season as the King’s Lieutenant and Counsaile there first do certifie the King under the Great Seale of that land, the causes and consideration and all such Acts as there seemeth should pass in the same Parliament; and such causes, considerations, and Acts affirmed by the King and his Counseile to be good and expedient for that land, and his license thereupon, as well as in affirmation of the said causes and Acts as to summon the said Parliament under his Great Seal of England had and obtained; that done, a Parliament to be had and holden after the form and effect afore rehearsed; and if any Parliament be holden in that land hereafter, contrary to the form and provisions aforesaid, it is to be deemed void and of none effect.’ ‘The effect of this clause,’ observes a very eminent Irish lawyer, [Vide Life and Death of the Irish Parliament, by the Right Hon. James Whiteside, p. 20.] ‘was to place a bridle in the mouth of the Irish Parliament, and subjugate alike the Lord Deputy, the nobles, and the commoners to the will of the King’s Council at Dublin and London.’

As for any Parliament which was assembled either before or after the passing of Poynings’ law, being the Parliament of the entire nation of Ireland, we may venture to assert it never was so, for to the reign of James I. it was almost entirely confined to the colonists under English rule, and from the time of James I. to the Union in 1800, it was, with few exceptions, elected by Protestants. The inconvenience of this course initiated by Poynings’ law was strikingly illustrated by a Bill returned to Ireland, altered in seventy-four places, which had been successively revised by Lord Thurlow when Attorney-General, by Lord Roslyn when Solicitor-General, and by Mr. Macnamara. The Bill so changed was rejected by the Irish House of Commons, so all labour was lost. Owing to the want of a Renewed Revenue Act, from the inevitable delays of transit, the Irish merchants for some time imported duty free; I dare say they prayed for contrary winds.

It was also enacted by this Parliament, that all royal grants made during the previous 18 years be revoked. This placed most of the titles and properties of the nobles at the King’s disposal. The ancient war cries [See note on Irish war cries in Haverty’s valuable ‘History of Ireland,’ p. 339.] of the great rival houses of Fitz Gerald and Butler, as well as of the ancient Milesian families, were henceforth proscribed under severe penalties, and in lieu thereof men should call on St. George, or the name of the King of England. None but Englishmen were to be admitted as Priors of Hospitallers in Ireland, or intrusted with the custody of any royal castle there, under a penalty of five pounds for each offence. The Lords spiritual and temporal were enjoined to appear in every Parliament in their robes, as the Lords of England. The reason assigned for this was, ‘that during the space of twenty years the English Lords of Ireland had, through penuriousness, done away the said robes, to their own great dishonour, and the rebuke of all the whole land.’ Poynings shortly had other duties to perform than those of a legislator. In 1495, he was summoned to Waterford, where Perkin Warbeck had landed. The Deputy signally defeated him, and returned to England in 1496.

During the years 1494-5, Henry Dean, Bishop of Bangor, appears to have been Lord Chancellor of Ireland.

In 1496, Walter Fitz Simon, who had been for many years Archbishop of Dublin, became Lord Chancellor of Ireland. At this period the equitable jurisdiction of Chancery was making very considerable progress. The doctrine of uses and trusts was settled, and where no action could be maintained at law by the party beneficially entitled in the case of a feoffment to uses for breach of duty, the Chancellor proceeded by subpoena to compel the feoffee to perform a duty binding in conscience. [Saunders on Uses, p. 26.]

Walter Fitz Simon was a Precentor of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and sat as proxy in the Parliament of 1478. In this year King Edward IV. constituted John De la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, Lieutenant of Ireland for twenty years. The power of the English was then so limited, that the Archbishop of Dublin could not visit those churches and prebends which lay on the borders of the adjacent Irish territories, where the jurisdiction of the Crown of England was not recognised.

On June 14, 1484, Walter Fitz Simon was elected Archbishop of Dublin, which was ratified by Pope Sextus IV., and on being duly licensed by the King, he was consecrated in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, on September 26, following. This solemnity usually took place in the Convent of the Holy Trinity, or Christchurch, for D’Alton relates:- ‘On the preceding day, the Dean, Chancellor, and Treasurer had solicited’ the consent of the Prior and Convent of the Holy Trinity that this ceremony should take place in St. Patrick’s; but they were refused, in consequence of which, a dispute took place that lasted until the evening, [Mason’s St. Patrick, p. 139.] but the ceremony was permitted to be solemnised the following day.

The Archbishop was among the Irish officials who were imposed upon by Lambert Simnel, as 1 have related already, and he thereby incurred the marked displeasure of King Henry VII. In the year, 1488, the Archbishop of Dublin was among those who were permitted to renew their allegiance and receive pardon through Sir Richard Edgecombe, for having favoured Simnel, while the Lord Deputy, the Earl of Kildare, being regarded more guilty, from his position and authority, had to take the oath with the utmost solemnity. This he did in the church of St. Thomas’ Abbey, with his right hand extended over the sacred host. When mass was concluded the Archbishop chanted the Te Deum, which was sung by the choir, and accompanied by the pealing organ, while all the church bells continued to ring. [Harris’s Hibernica, part i, p. 33.]

In 1492, his grace Archbishop Fitz Simon was appointed Deputy to Jasper Duke of Bedford, in place of Gerald Earl of Kildare. This appointment was ratified by the King. He made good use of his authority by endeavouring to excite industrious habits amongst the people, and represented to the King ‘how idly the younger sons of rich families spent their time; who learned no trade, nor qualified themselves by study for any liberal profession, but lived in a state of dependance on the elder brother, or head of the family, and so became useless to the commonwealth; and, as for the bulk of the common people, they lived in sloth and indolence on account of the great plenty of all kinds of provisions that the land naturally produceth, and for this they neglect to labour; that it is a greater charity to find work for them, than to relieve them from door to door; for that one is acceptable to God, profitable to the Commonwealth, and healthful to the body, whereas idleness is the root of all evil.’

This prudent letter from the Archbishop induced King Henry to issue orders against mendicancy. He caused a Proclamation to be made, ‘that none should be suffered to wander about the cities, towns, or boroughs of Ireland, without a certificate from the Mayor, Bailiff, or Seneschal of the places where they were born, by which means every town kept their own poor, and a workhouse was erected in each locality for the paupers to work in. The Archbishop appointed beadles for the purpose of enforcing this regulation, who were to keep watch over the cities, towns, and parishes, to keep beggars out and take up strangers.’

In 1493, the Archbishop, while Viceroy, held a Parliament at Dublin, in which all the inquisitions before that time found against him on the instigation of Roland, Lord Portlester, were declared void, while, at the same session, all grants, annuities, leases, &c., made by this prelate were annulled.

Fitz Eustace, who was father-in-law of the Earl of Kildare, was removed from the office of Treasurer, which was conferred on Sir James Ormond, and Fitz Eustace directed to produce and authenticate the accounts of the revenue for forty years, during which time he held the post of Treasurer of the colony.

The King requiring information respecting Ireland, sent for the Archbishop, and Lord Gormanstown was named Deputy in his absence. He departed for England, and laid before the King a full account of his government of Ireland and the state of the kingdom. We may presume he was very severe upon the doings of the Earl of Kildare, for close on his visit followed the impeachment of that nobleman.

Previous to the Archbishop’s departure from Ireland, he delivered his crozier to Richard Skerrit, Prior of Christ Church, to whose custody it appertained. His reception in the Court of the King was befitting a royal favourite, and Stanyhurst relates an instance of his familiarity with his Sovereign. Being present when an oration was made in the King’s praise, at its conclusion King Henry asked the Archbishop his opinion of it. ‘If it pleaseth your Highness, it pleaseth me,” replied the courtly prelate. ‘I can find no fault but that it flatters your Majesty too much.’ ‘Now in good faith,’ said the King, ‘our father of Dublin, we were minded to find the same fault ourselves.’

In 1494, the King appointed his son, Henry Duke of York, afterwards Henry VIII., Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, and, greatly desiring that justice might in all particulars be administered in the right track, and confiding in the allegiance, diligence, integrity, conscience, experience, and learning of Archbishop Fitz Simon, appointed him Lord Chancellor. [Patent, August 6, 1496. II Hen. VII.]

The equitable jurisdiction of the Court of Chancery may be traced from the time of Richard II., when the practice of referring matters to the Chancellor was in use. The writ of subpoena, to compel an appearance by the defendant, added much power to the authority of the Chancellor, and the formula of ‘Bill and Answer’ was deemed much more effectual than the petition to be heard ore tenus.

It was not, however, until the reign of Henry VII. that the equitable jurisdiction of this Court made its greatest stride. Then, it became settled law, that there being a feoffment to uses, the person beneficially entitled could not, on violation of the trust, maintain an action at common law. Thereupon the Chancellors determined they would compel the faithless trustee to perform the duty binding upon his conscience, and, in process of time, the remedy was extended against his heir and assignee, with notice of the trust. But it was not considered equitable to extend this remedy against a purchaser of the legal estate for valuable, consideration without such notice. Equity pleadings soon became as intricate as those of law, and we have some curious specimens on the Rolls of the time of Queen Elizabeth, to which I shall hereafter refer.

Although his Court occupied a good share of his time, the Chancellor did not neglect the affairs of the Church. In 1594 he held a provincial synod in the Church of the Holy Trinity, when an annual contribution for seven years was settled by the clergy of the province for the lecturers of the University in St. Patrick’s Cathedral. [Allen’s Registry, f. 105.]

On May 19, 1497, he granted to John Alleyne, Dean of St. Patrick, licence to build an hospital for the poor, and assigned ground for the purpose in Kevins Street. All the poor therein lodged were required to pray for his soul, as the principal founder, and for the souls of the Dean, his friends, and successors for ever. This hospital was not intended for the indiscriminate poor, but such as were good Catholics, of honest conversation, of the English nation, and chiefly of former settlers in the dioceses of Dublin and Meath, named Allen, Barrett, Begg, Hill, Dillon, and Rogers. Out of these classes the Dean and Chapter of St. Patrick were to have the right of selection without fee or reward. [Masons St. Patrick, p. 142.]

In 1498 some changes took place among the State officials in Ireland which led to Archbishop Fitz Simon relinquishing the Great Seal to the Bishop of Meath. In 1508 he was appointed Deputy to Gerald Earl of Kildare, and the following year was again Chancellor. [Patent, 1509. 1 Hen. VIII.] He was Archbishop of Dublin until his death, which took place at Finglas, near Dublin, on May 14, 1511, having filled the See of Ireland’s capital for the long period of twenty-seven years. His remains were brought to St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and honourably interred in the nave. Historians characterise this prelate as a man of great gravity and learning.

Among the Acts of the Irish Parliament during the reign of Henry VII. we find some description of the social state of the kingdom. An Act restraining carrying hawks out of Ireland, enacted ‘Whatsoever merchant should take or carry any hawk out of the said land of Ireland should pay for every goshawk, 13s. 4d.; for a tiercel, 6s. 8d.; for a falcon, 10s.’

There was a law passed on the representation of the Dean and Chapter of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, that the rivers and podells were so stopped up, the close was constantly flooded, for remedy whereof every householder upon the podell was obliged to cleanse and scour the said precincts, within two months after the passing of the Act, upon pain of 20s., to be levied by the Proctor of St. Patrick’s. Then came an Act against Provisors to Rome. An Act for the Confirmation of the Statute of Kilkenny. [Vide excellent observations on the notorious Statute of Kilkenny, and on the misgovernment of Ireland under Anglo-Norman rulers, in the Life of Edward III., by W. Longman, vol. ii. ch. i.] An Act that every subject worth 10l. shall have an English bow and a sheaf of arrows. An Act against the use of Irish war cries. This has already been brought before the reader.

I subjoin specimens of the cries or war-shouts of the Irish, and the Anglo-Normans who adopted Irish customs:-

That of the O’Neils was, Lamh dearg abu - Hurra for the Red Hand

O’Briens - Lamh laider an uacthor - The strong hand uppermost.

MacSwynys - Battailah abu - Hurra for the noble staff.

Fitz Geralds of Kildare - Crom abu - Hurra for Crom.

Fitz Geralds of Desmond - Sean ait abu - Hurra for the old place.

Bourks of Clanrickarde - Gal ruadh abu - Hurra for the red stranger.

Fitz Patricks - Gear laider abu - Hurra for the sharp and strong.

Heffernans - Ceart na suas abu - Hurra for the right from above.

Husseys, Barons of Galtrim - Coir direach abu - Hurra for strict justice,

Knight of Kerry - Farre buidhe abee - Hurra for the yellow men.

Index Chapter 11. Home.