More Henry VIII Chancellors.

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CHAPTER XIII.

Lord Chancellors Of Ireland During The Reign Of Henry VIII. - Continued.

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George Cromer, Archbishop of Armagh, was appointed Lord Chancellor of Ireland in 1532. Ware describes Dr. Cromer as an ‘Englishman of great gravity, learning, and a sweet disposition.’ I have not been able to ascertain the period of his coming into Ireland, but he succeeded John Kite in the Archdiocese of Armagh. His predecessor Archbishop Kite’s tomb had this quaint memento mori:-

For whose soul good pepul of cherite

Prey, as ye would be preyed for; for thus must ye lie.

Dr. Cromer was appointed Primate in 1522. I hope he did not find the inhabitants of Armagh quite so uncivilised as they were described to a predecessor in the See [Ware’s Bishops.] Octavian de Palatio. I give the Latin and translation:-

Civitas Armachana,

Civitas vana,

Absq. Honis moribus;

Mulieres nudae,

Carnes crudae,

Pauperitas in aedibus.

Armagh is notorious,

For being vain-glorious,

The men void of manners, their spouses

Go naked; they eat

Raw flesh for their meat,

And poverty dwells in their houses.

We have seen when Gerald Earl of Kildare became Viceroy, in 1532, Archbishop Alan was removed from the office of Chancellor of Ireland, and was succeeded by Archbishop Cromer. It was supposed the Earl had a share in causing this change, and it added fuel to the flame long smouldering in the breast of Archbishop Alan, who had been a constant foe to the house of Kildare. Unfortunately the conduct of Kildare, then Deputy, afforded ample opportunity to impeach him for violating the Statute of Kilkenny, which prohibited alliances with the Irish. He had given two of his daughters in marriage to Irish noblemen. One to O’Connor, Prince of O’Fally, the other to the Chief of the O’Carrolls. He was involved in their wars, and, at the siege of Birr, received a wound in the head, by which his intellect was disordered. [Stuart’s History of Armagh, p. 218.] His enemies were not slow to represent these matters to the King, and a very strong memorial, setting forth the sad condition of Ireland, was submitted to Henry VIII. He, at once, commanded the Earl to attend before him personally, to answer these charges, and on his reaching London was forthwith committed a prisoner to the Tower.

In the Life of Lord Chancellor Alan I have described, at length, the rebellion of Lord Offaly, and his conduct when surrendering the sword, emblem of power, as Lord Deputy. I have now to relate the part Cromer, then Lord Chancellor, took upon that melancholy occasion. Anxious, if possible, to avert the fate which he foresaw would befall, not only all who engaged in this mad attempt, but every member of the house of Kildare, within reach of the King’s vengeance, this mild Prelate took Lord Offaly by the hand, and, while tears rolled down his aged cheeks, besought him to listen to the words he had to say in reply to his address. [Ante, p. 177.] This granted, the Chancellor said:-

‘My Lord, although hatred be commonlie the hand maiden of truth, because we see him that plainlie expresseth his mind, to be for the more part of most men disliked: yet notwithstanding I am so well assured of your Lordship his good inclination towards me, and your Lordship so certaine of mine entire affection towards you, as I am imboldened, notwithstanding this companie of armed men, freelie and franklie to vtter that which by me declared, and by your Lordship followed, will turne (God willing) to the avai1 of you, your friends, allies, and this countrie. I doubt not, my Lord, but you know, that it is wisdom for anie man to looke before he leape, and to sowneth water before his ship hull thereon, and manelie where the matter is of weight, there it behoveth to follow sound, sage, and mature advice. Wherefore, my Lord, sith it is no maigame for a subject to levie an armie against his Prince; it lieth your Lordship in hand to breath longer on the matter, as well by forecasting the hurt whereby you may fall as by revolving the hope wherewith you are fed. What should moove your Lordship to this sudden attempt, I know not. If it be the death of your father, it is as yet but secretlie muttered not manifestlie published. And if I should grant you, that your zele in reuenging your father his execution were in some respect to be commended. Yet reason would you should suspend the reuenge vntill the certeintie were knowne. And were it that the report were true, yet it standeth with the dutie and allegiance of a good subject (from whom I hope in God you mean not to disseuer your selfe) not to spurne and kick against his Prince, but contrariwise, if his souereigne be mightie, to feare him, if he be kind to loue him: if he be vicious to pitie him: if he be a tyrant to bare with him, considering that, in such case, it is better with patience to bow, than with stubbornness to breake. For sacred is the name of a King, and odious is the name of rebellion: the one from heaven deriued, and by God shielded: the other in hell forged, and by the deuil executed, and, therefore, whoso will obserue the course of histories, or weigh the iustice of God in punishing malefactors, shall easilie see, that albeit the sunne shineth for a time on them that are in rebellion: yet such secret beginnings, are, at length, clasped up with sharpe and soure ends.

‘King Henrie is known to be, in these our dais, so puissant a Prince, and so victorious, a worthie, that he is able to conquer forren dominions, and, thinke you, that he cannot defend his owne? He tamneth Kings, and iudge you that he may not rule his own subiects? Suppose you conquer the land, doo you imagine that he will not recouer it? Therefore, my Lord, flatter not your selfe ouermuch, repose not so great reliance either in your troope of horsemen, or in your band of footmen, or in the multitude of your partakers. What face soueuer they put nowe on the matter, or what success, for a season, they haue yet hereafter, when the King shall send his power into this countrie, you shall see your adherents, like slipper-changelings, plucke in their homes, and such as were content to bear you up by the chin, as long as you could swim; when they espie you sink, they will, by little and little, shrink from you, and perchance will duck you ouer head and ears. As long as the gale puffeth full in your sailes, doubt not but diuerse will anerre vnto you, and feed on you as crows on carrion: but if anie storm happen to bluster, then will they be sure to leave you post alone, sticking in the mire, or sands, hauing lost helpe when you haue most need. And what will then issue of this? The branches will be pardoned, the root apprehended, your honour distained, your house atteinted, your armes reuersed, your manours razed, your doings examined; at which time God knoweth what a hart-burning it will be, when that with no colour may be denied, which, without shame cannot be confessed. My Lord, I power not out oracles as a soothsaiur, for I am neither a prophet or the sonne of a prophet. But it may be, that I am some frantic Cassandra, being partner of her spirit in foretelling the truth, and partaker of her misfortune in that I am not (when I tell the truth) beleeued of your Lordship, whom God defend from being Priamus.

‘Weigh, therefore, my Lord, the nobilitie of your ancestors, remember your father, his late exhortation, forget not your dutie vnto your Prince, consider the estate of this poore countrie, with what heapes of curses you will be loden, when your soldiours shall rifle the poore subiects, and so far indamage the whole relme, as they are not yet borne that shall hereafter feele the smart of this vprore. [The coincidence has been remarked between this passage of the Chancellor’s speech and the lines in the ballad of Chevy Chase:-

To wind the deer, with hound and horn,

Earl Percy took his way,

The child may rue that is unborn

The hunting of that day.] You have not gone so far but you may turn home, the King is mercifull, your offense, as yet, not ouer heinous, cleaue to his clemencie, abandon this headlong follie, which I craue in most humble wise of your Lordship, for the love of God, for the dutie you owe your Prince, for the affection you beare the countrie, and for the respect you have to your owne safetie whom God defend from all traiterous and wicked attempts.’ [Hollinshed Chronicles, vol. vi. p. 290.]

This wise and eloquent speech, was addressed to the young noble in a voice broken by emotion, and, at times, inarticulate from weeping; but it was spoken in vain. The clansmen of Kildare, who could not understand English, put their own construction upon the Chancellor’s, address. Some said he was preaching a sermon, others that he was reciting a poem in honour of Lord Offaly, and, on this the Irish bard, O’Nelan, resolving not to be outdone in his office, tuned his harp, and commenced the stirring ode to Silken Thomas, which speedily found more sympathy with the young nobleman than the prophetic words [As an instance of the scattered state of the records of Ireland, Mr. Morrin mentions in his valuable Calendar of the Patent and Close Rolls of Chancery, Ireland, vol. ii., that:- ’ Numerous records relating to Ireland are now to be found in various repositories in London, where they are lying totally useless. I myself discovered there an interesting and valuable collection of Irish MSS. stowed away in sacks, labelled “Bags Hiberniae,” the contents of which were previously, I believe, unknown, Amongst other interesting original letters, one from “Silken Thomas,” whilst a prisoner in the Tower, directed to his servant Brian, entreating him in the most earnest terms, “to procure him some pecuniary assistance, as he was without shoes or hosen, living on the bounty of his fellow prisoners.” We may well imagine what a sad plight the chivalrous and proud heir of Kildare must have been in, a prisoner living on the bounty of prisoners. How truly prophetic was the feeling address of the Lord Chancellor, though, like Cassandra’s, it was unfortunately nunquam credita.’] of the venerable Prelate, and led to the ruinous consequences already fully detailed.

When Henry VIII. resolved to introduce his novel creed into Ireland, he was met by the most persistent opposition from Primate Cromer, who treated the King’s supremacy as a detestable and impious attempt to deprive the Sovereign Pontiff of his undoubted right. When the Irish Parliament, like the English, obeyed the King, and acknowledged him ‘Head of the Church,’ the Primate, persisting in his opposition, was removed from the office of Lord Chancellor, which was given, in 1534, to Sir John Barnewall, Lord Trimlestown. Cromer convened his suffragans, and the chief clergy of the province, exhorted them to suffer no change of Catholic doctrine or practice, and to preserve unsullied the title of Holy Isle, for which Ireland was famed for many centuries. In conjunction with them he pronounced anathema against all who fell away from their allegiance to the Pope, as spiritual head of the Church, or recognised Henry as such.

But after a time a change took place in the zeal of the Archbishop. He was considered waning in his desire to uphold the Catholic faith. Some attributed this to the example of his countrymen in England, who very readily steered the light bark of their faith according to the King’s compass. Others believed that personal affection for the King, to whom he owed his mitre, influenced, him, and diminished his former ardour. Whatever the cause, Rome was alarmed, and in the consistory of July 1, 1539, a sentence of suspension from all exercise of primatical jurisdiction was promulgated against him, ‘till such time as he should purge himself from the suspicion of heresy.’ Meanwhile, Dr. Robert Wauchop was appointed apostolic administrator of the See of Armagh. [Rev. Dr. Moran’s Hist. Of Archbishops of Dublin] Ex-Chancellor Cromer died March 15th, 1542.

Dr. Stuart, in his History of Armagh, states: ‘It is probable that even Primate Cromer himself at last submitted to the authority of the King, and ceased to give any opposition to his measures; for in a curious edict made by the Privy Council, in the year 1541, we find him appointed, in conjunction with the Lord of Louth, arbitrator of such controversies as might arise in Ulster, a power which could not be invested in him, if he had not regained the confidence of his Sovereign. [Stuart’s History of Armagh, p. 234.]

When Henry VIII. permitted Archbishop Cromer to retain his head for the same offence which cost Sir Thomas More his life, and contented himself with depriving the Primate of the Seals, he delivered them to Lord Trimlestown, who then became Lord Chancellor of Ireland in 1534.

Le Sieur de Barneville was one of the Norman knights who fought in the ranks of William the Conqueror at the battle of Hastings. When broad lands were to be won by the sword in Ireland, these adventurous warriors found their feats of arms their best inheritance; and deeds of war were sure to be well rewarded. Ulfraed de Barneville obtained an estate in the beauteous vale of Shanganah, so sweetly described by my gifted friend, D. F. MacCarthy:-

How pleased, how delighted, the rapt eye reposes

On the picture of beauty this valley discloses,

From that margin of silver, whereon the blue water

Doth glance like the eyes of the ocean foam’s daughter!

To where, with the red clouds of morning combining,

The tall ‘Golden Spears’ * o’er the mountains are shining,

With the hue of their heather, as sunlight advances,

Like purple flags furled round the staffs of the lances!

Sweetest of vales is the vale of Shanganah!

Greenest of vales is the vale of Shanganah!

No land far away by the calm Susquehannah.

So tranquil and fair as the vale of Shanganah!

• The tall mountains, known as the Sugar Loaves are called more poetically in Irish ‘the Golden Spears.’

When the constant tumults in which the early English colonists were engaged, either with the natives or amongst themselves, had any cessation, the Barnevilles showed other talents besides military. In a.d. 1435, Christopher Barneville, or Barnewall, as the name was then written, of Crickstown, was appointed Chief-Justice of the King’s Bench in Ireland. In 1461, Nicholas Barnewall was Chief-Justice of the Common Pleas, and his brother Robert was created a Peer of Parliament by the title of Baron of Trimlestown. His son Christopher, second Baron, was one of the Irish Peers who, deceived by the pretensions of Lambert Simnel, and believing him to be the scion of the House of York, attended his coronation in Christ Church, Dublin; but soon after, making submission, received pardon from the King. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Plunkett, of Rathmore, and was succeeded by his eldest son, the subject of this memoir. John, third Lord Trimlestown, was induced, probably by the distinguished career of his grandfather, Sir Thomas Plunkett, to study law, and became an excellent lawyer. His connection, we may be sure, soon procured him employment, and, in 1509, he became second Justice of the King’s Bench in Ireland.

Lord Trimlestown did not marry quite so often as his Royal master, but had more than an average share of the joys of Hymen. He was married four times. He had a son (who succeeded him in the title) by his first wife, Jane, daughter of John Bellew, Esq., of Bellewstown, an ancient race ennobled in the family of Lord Bellew, of Barmeath; and also with the baronetage, of Mount Bellew. In 1522, Lord Trimlestown was, appointed Vice-Treasurer of Ireland, and having acquired considerable reputation as a financier, in two years later was advanced to the very arduous and responsible office of High-Treasurer of Ireland; and appears while in this office to have taken good care of his own interest. In addition to other tenements and hereditaments, I find that in 1532 he received a fee-farm grant of 136 acres of arable land at Dunleer, to hold as the manor of Trim.

When Henry VIII. made up his mind to assert his spiritual supremacy in 1534, he appointed Dr. Browne, changed from an Augustinian friar into a zealous Protestant, Archbishop of Dublin. [State Pap., Hen. VIII. Vol. ii. P. 465.] He came specially commissioned, ‘that it was the Royal will and pleasure of his Majesty that his subjects in Ireland, even as those in England, should obey his commands in spiritual matters as in temporal, and renounce their allegiance to the See of Rome.’ Browne was further spurred on by such threats from the King as, ‘Let it sink into your remembrance, that we are as able, for the not doing thereof, to remove you again, and put another man of more virtue and honesty into your place, as we were at the beginning to prefer you;’ and to do him justice he did his best to obey his Majesty’s commands. But the old adage says, ‘One man may bring a horse to the water, and fifty will not make him drink.’ The Archbishop found, while it was very easy for the King to send him orders from England, it was as easy to make the horse drink against his inclination as to induce the Irish to swallow King Henry’s creed. The Archbishop wrote to Lord Cromwell, on December 4, 1535, ‘that he had endeavoured, almost to the danger and hazard of his temporal life, to procure the nobility and gentry of this nation to due obedience in owning his Highness their supreme head, as well spiritual as temporal; and do find much oppugning therein, especially by his brother Armagh, who hath beene the main oppugner, and so hath withdrawn most of his suffragans and clergy within his See and diocese.’ [The Phoenix, Lond. 1707, vol. i. p. 121. See also Life and Death of George Browne, by Robert Ware. This life is contained in the English edition of Sir James Ware’s works.]

Previously to this time, two spiritual proctors from each diocese had seats in Parliament. It was their special province ‘upon such things of learning as should happen in controversy, to declare what was the doctrine agreeable to truth and to the teaching of the Catholic Church.’

When the attempt was made to introduce the Reformation into Ireland by King Henry VIII., these Proctors strenuously resisted the Act of Supremacy. On May 18, 1537, Lords Grey and Brabazon, when informing Lord Cromwell in England of their having caused Parliament to be assembled to meet the English Commissioners, thus alludes to this opposition:- ’ The forwardness and obstinacy of the Proctors of the clergy from the beginning of this Parliament, and at this session both of them, the Bishops, and Abbots, hath been such that we think we can do no less than advertise your lordship thereof. Considering their obstinacy, we thought good to prorogue the Parliament for this time, and against the next sessions provide a remedy for them. And therefore, my lord, it were well that some means be devised whereby they may be brought to remember their duties better. Except the means may be found that these Proctors may be put from voice in the Parliament, there shall but few things pass for the King’s profit, for hitherto have they showed themselves in nothing conformable.’ [State Papers, Henry VIII., vol. ii. P. 437.]

Action was at once taken on this letter. An order under the Great Seal of England was transmitted to the Commissioners, declaring ‘that the spiritual Proctors shall have no vote in Parliament,’ and this was quickly endorsed by the Irish legislature. [28 Henry VIII. Ir. Chap. xii.] A novel duty was now undertaken by the Lord Chancellor, who, with the Archbishop and other members of the Council, undertook a converting circuit, which jumbled preaching, hanging, law, and religion, varied by feasting and visiting, in a most extraordinary manner. It would prove a very amusing narrative were it not for the tragical events which continually come to light. An extract from the State papers will show how the circuit was conducted:- ‘We resorted first to Carlow, where the Lord James Butler kept his Christmas; and there being well entertained, from thence we went to Kilkenny, where we were no less entertained by the Earl of Ormond. There, on New Year’s-day, the Archbishop of Dublin preached the word of God, having, very good audience, and published the King’s injunctions, and the King’s translation of the Pater Noster, Ave Maria, the Articles of Faith, and the Ten Commandments, in English - divers papers whereof we delivered to the Bishop and other prelates of the diocese, commanding them to do the like throughout their jurisdictions. The Saturday following we repaired to Ross, which town having been heretofore one of the best towns of this land, being also situated in the best place of these parts for subduing the Kavanaghs, is in manners utterly decayed and waste, by reason of the continual war and annoyance of the Kavanaghs, which cannot be helped while the Kavanaghs remain unreformed. Then the morning after, the said Archbishop preached; that night we went to Wexford, where the same Archbishop preached on the Epiphany day, having a great audience and publishing the said injunctions. The Saturday following the Epiphany we came to Waterford, where the Mayor and his brethren during our abode, both well entertained us and used themselves very obediently in conforming themselves to our orders and directions. There, the Sunday, my Lord of Dublin preached, having a very great audience, when also were published the King’s injunctions. The day following we kept the Sessions there both for the city and the shire, where was put to execution four felons, accompanied with another, a friar, whom, among the residue, we commanded to be hanged in his habit, and so to remain upon the gallows for a mirror to all his brethren to live truly.’ [State Papers, vol. iii. P. 108.]

This, happily, unique mode of inculcating Christian doctrine, was attended with exactly the consequences that might be, expected from it. The people recoiled with horror from a creed that used no better arguments than punishing religious opinions as felony, and hanging their clergy in their habits - pour encourager les autres. Whether the good living, or hard work, told upon the constitution of the Chancellor, I know not, but he quickly succumbed to the summons of death, and yielded up his life in 1538.

During the reign of King Henry VIII. there were few Parliaments held in Ireland; yet many useful English statutes were adopted, and the laws of England and Ireland were much assimilated. An important Act was passed respecting absentees. [28 Hen. VIII. Ir.] Receiving rents through agents was regarded as a crime; and those English noblemen, who by marriage or descent acquired lands in Ireland, on which they never resided, were expected to grant them to persons who would do so. The King’s Majesty (for the reformation of the said land, to foresee that the like shall not occur hereafter) with the consent of his Parliament, pronounced forfeited the estates of all absentees, and that. their right and title was gone. [A construction was put upon this singular statute in the case of the Earl of Shrewsbury, also Earl of Waterford, reported in the 12th part of Lord Cokes’ Reports: ‘It was reselved by the Judges in England, to whom the question was by the Privy Council referred, that the Irish Act against absentees did not only take away from the Earl of Waterford the possessions which were given to him at the time of his creation but also the dignity itself,’ The Court said: ‘It was with good reason to take away such dignity by Act of Parliament, and although the said Earl of Shrewsbury be not only of great honour and virtue, but also of great possessions in England, yet it was not the intention of the Act to continue him Earl in Ireland when his possessions were taken from him; but that the King at his pleasure might confer as well the dignity as the possessions to any other, for the defence of the said realm.’ In lectures by the Right Hon. James Whiteside (now Lord Chief Justice of the Queen’s Bench, Ireland), on the Irish Parliament, he states: ‘I ought to mention that the propriety of this decision of Lord Coke and others came before the Lords in 1832, in the case of the Earl of Shrewsbury, claiming as Earl of Waterford, to vote at the election of Representative Peers of Ireland; and it was held, that the dignity of the peerage was not taken away by the Irish Act against absentees; and, that the opinion above cited was not binding upon the House of Lords, or any other court of justice.’ Life and Death of the Irish Parliaments, part i. p. 41.

I have examined the enrolled Chancery Decrees of this reign, numbering sixty-one, in the public Record Office, Four Courts, Dublin, they are chiefly on bills filed for account - to give parties quiet possession of disputed lands - one or two were somewhat peculiar and might have been tried at law, such the cause of Maurice Eustace and Lord Killyn. Decree directing payment of eight marks in satisfaction of a horse taken by defendant, and an injunction to issue to enforce compliance with the decree. A decree decides a certain wall to be a party wall. Another directs the Archbishop of Dublin to be put in possession of the island called Ireland’s Eye.]

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