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The Early Interpretation of Poynings’ Law, 1494-1534

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 July 2017

David B. Quinn
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Extract

The act of the Irish parliament of 1494-5, known as Poynings’ Law, was of outstanding importance in the history of that parliament down to its virtual repeal in 1782, but, owing to the brevity of its text, the changing nature of the relations between the English government and the Anglo-Irish administration and the development of the organisation of the Irish parliament, it passed through various stages of interpretation and significance which require to be studied separately.

Type
Articles
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 2 , Issue 7 , March 1941 , pp. 241 - 254
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 1941

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References

Page 241 note 1 10 Hen. VII, c. 4 (statute roll, c. 9), Ir. Stat. (1768), i. 44.

Page 241 note 2 21 & 22 Geo. III, c. 47.

Page 242 note 1 1 From the facsimile of the entry on the statute roll, destroyed in 1922, in Facsimiles of the national manuscripts of Ireland, ed. J. T. Gilbert, pt. III, pl. LIII. The copy given above differs in a few cases from Gilbert's transcript, printed facing the facsimile.

Page 242 note 2 Actually the act of resumption was passed subsequently by the same parliament which passed Poynings’ Law. The only surviving text of this act (10 Hen. VII, c. 11), which, however, does not contain a full copy of the provisoes, is printed in A. Conway, Henry VII's relations with Scotland and Ireland, 1485-98, pp. 204-9.

Page 243 note 1 Professor Curtis points out that one important constitutional object of the act was to prevent the Irish parliament from repeating the Simnel affair and offering the crown of Ireland ‘to a native Earl, a Yorkist claimant, a Scottish or French King‘ (’The acts of the Drogheda parliament', in Conway, op. cit., p. 137).

Page 244 note 1 R. Steele, ed., Tudor and Stuart Proclamations, 1485-1714, vol. i, p. cxxii, citing Pat. Roll, Ire., 19 Edward IV.

Page 244 note 2 The last great council traced, to which proctors of the clergy, and therefore also representatives of the commons, were summoned, was that which was to meet at Naas on 23 Oct. 1487 (Armagh Public Library, Register of Octavian de Palatio, archbishop of Armagh, f. 378v).

Page 244 note 3 This can be dated approximately from the beginning of the council register in 34 Hen. VIII (Hist. MSS. Comm., Fifteenth Report, app. iii, p. 273).

Page 245 note 1 K. Pickthorn, Early Tudor government, Henry VII, p. 129.

Page 245 note 2 In November 1497 John Topcliffe, chief justice of common pleas, was going to England with the request for a licence and with bills (Cal. Ormond Deeds, iv. 333), and in April 1508 Gerald Fitzgerald, treasurer, and Thomas Rochfort, dean of St. Patrick's, were going for the same purpose (ibid., 361). In December 1520 Patrick Finglas, chief baron of the exchequer, went over (S.P. Hen. VIII, ii. 68), and the following items appear in the under-treasurer's accounts (PRO, E101/248/21) in this connection:

‘And for the costs and expenses of Patrick Fynglas, chief baron of the exchequer, riding from the same to the king in England with certain new statutes, made in a parliament held in Ireland (’cum certis nouis Statutis Fact is in quodam Parliamento tento in 'hibernia’), during the time of this declaration, to be presented to the king and shown and declared before his council, together with divers payments made by the same Patrick in certain of the king's courts in England for several writings, seals and muniments obtained for the same parliament and from suits, as appears in the book of the same under-treasurer, £18.'

‘And for a reward given to Robert Isam, clerk, for writing the said statutes of Ireland delivered to the same Patrick, as appears by the aforesaid book, 12s. 6d.'

Page 245 note 3 Chancery Warrants, series II, July, 23 Hen. VII, PRO, C82/315.

Page 246 note 1 Pat. Roll (Eng.), 23 Hen. VII, part 2, m. 26 (6), PRO, C66/609.

Page 246 note 2 Above, p. 245, n. 2.

Page 246 note 3 Pat. Roll (Eng.), 13 Hen. VII, m. 18 (28), printed in Facs.Nat. MSS. Ire., pt. III, app. 8.

Page 246 note 4 Pat. Roll (Eng.), 7 Hen. VIII, pt. 3, m. 12 ; printed from the entry of the original sent to Ireland, in Hist. MSS. Comm., Ninth Report, app. ii, pp. 271-3.

Page 246 note 5 Pat. Roll (Eng.), 12 Hen. VIII, pt. 2, mm. 31-2, PRO, C66/636.

Page 246 note 6 Pat. Roll (Eng.), 23 Hen. VIII, pt. 1, mm. 2-3, PRO, C66/658.

Page 246 note 7 Ir.Stat. (1786), i. 57.

Page 246 note 8 Extracts from estreat roll of the chancery of Ireland, BM, Add. MS. 4797, f. 109V.

Page 246 note 9 It is possible, of course, that a further licence to continue the parliament beyond the limit fixed in the licence of 28 March 1498 was obtained and that this has not survived.

Page 247 note 1 Conway, op. cit., p. 230 (spelling and punctuation modernised).

Page 248 note 1 PRO, S.P. Ire., Miscellanea, S.P. 66/case A, no. 3. The other bill (S.P. 66/case A, no. 2) is one for the attainder of the earl of Desmond and must have been forwarded in connection with some request to hold parliament between 1525 and 1528 for which there is no other evidence surviving.

Page 248 note 2 Pat. Roll (Eng.), 12 Hen. VIII, pt. 2, mm. 31-32, PRO, C66/636.

Page 248 note 3 Cat. Ormond Deeds, iv. 333 (spelling and punctuation modernised).

Page 249 note 1 Cal. Ormond Deeds, iv. 335 (spelling and punctuation modernised).

Page 249 note 2 The bill and letters under the signet have survived only in copies of c. 1527 (CaL Ormond Deeds, iv. 377-80 ; spelling and punctuation modernised).

Page 250 note 1 Cal. Ormond Deeds, iii. 385-7, where the date is mistakenly given as 26 August 1499.

Page 250 note 2 Parliament met at Dublin on 25 Feb. 1516 (Ir. Stat. (1786), i. 59).

Page 250 note 3 Pat. Roll (Eng.), 8 Hen. VIII, pt. 1, m. 12 (17), PRO, C66/627.

Page 250 note 4 Pat. Roll (Eng.), 23 Hen. VIII, pt. 1, m. 4, PRO, C66/658.

Page 250 note 5 Ibid., mm. 2-3.

Page 251 note 1 Ir. Rec. Comm., Reports, ii. 356, and MS. list of records surviving in 1922 in PROI.

Page 251 note 2 Shaw Mason, ‘Collation of the printed statutes with the rolls’ (TCD, Add. MS. W. 8, p. 2).

Page 251 note 3 Ir. Rec. Comm., Reports, ii. 356.

Page 251 note 4 Summaries in BM, Add. MS. 4801 and Harris, ‘Collectanea', xvii. 291 (Nat. Lib. Ire.).

Page 251 note 5 Pat. Roll (Eng.), 23 Hen. VII, pt. 2, m. 26 (6), PRO, C66/31 5.

Page 251 note 6 D. B. Quinn, ‘ The Irish parliamentary subsidy in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries', in Proc. RIA, xlii, section C, p. 240, where the provisoes added in the act are distinguished by italics.

Page 252 note 1 Pat. Roll (Eng.), 12 Hen. VIII, pt. 2, m. 31, PRO, C66/636 (spelling and punctuation modernised).

Page 252 note 2 Facs. Nat. MSS. Ire., pt. III, app. 8.

Page 252 note 3 BM, Add. MSS. 4801, f. 79.

Page 252 note 4 These appeared on the fifteenth century rolls up to and including that of Poynings’ parliament, e.g. Early Stats. Ire., Edw. IV, pp. 712-5, and cf. PRO, E 30/1548, f. 1.

Page 253 note 1 BM, Add. MS. 4801.

Page 253 note 2 Marsh's Library, MS. Z3.2.5, p. 301.

Page 253 note 3 Cf. T. W. Moody, ‘ The Irish parliament under Elizabeth and James P, in Proc. RIA, xlv, section C, p. 64.

Page 254 note 1 3 & 4 Philip and Mary, c. 14 (Statute roll, c. 11), Ir. Stat. (1786), i. 246-8.

Page 254 note 2 Most of the unpublished documents, cited in the notes, are being printed in ’Bills and Statutes of the Irish Parliaments of Henry VII and Henry VIII‘, edited by the present writer, for Analect. Hib., no. 10.