Edward I and the Proposed Purchase of English Law for the Irish, c. 1276–80

Aubrey Gwynn S.J.

doi:10.2307/3678776

Edward I and the Proposed Purchase of English Law for the Irish, c. 1276–80

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 February 2009

Aubrey Gwynn S.J.

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Abstract

AS far back as 1877 H. S. Sweetman brought to the notice of Irish scholars a letter which Robert de Ufford, justiciar Ireland, wrote to Edward I in 1277 and the king's answer. The justiciar told the king that ‘the Irish offer 7,000 marks for a grant from the king of the common laws of the English, and much desire to have an answer thereupon’. In his reply the king said that he had deliberated with his council, and that ‘it seemed meet to them that a grant of English laws should be made, because the laws which the Irish use are detestable to God and so contrary to all law that they ought not to be deemed laws’. But it was first necessary to obtain the common consent of the people, or at least of well-affected prelates and magnates of Ireland; and the justiciar was accordingly instructed to hold a conference and ascertain the opinion of such suitable persons.

Type: Research Article
Information: Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , Volume 10 , December 1960 , pp. 111 - 127

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/3678776 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1960

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References

^{page 111 note 1} Cal[endar of]Doc[uments relating to] Ireland, 1252–84, nos. 1400, 1408.

^{page 111 note 2} Orpen, , Ireland under the Normans, iv, p. 22Google Scholar; see alsoPowicke, F. M., Henry III and the Lord Edward, p. 665Google Scholar.

^{page 111 note 3} Curtis, , A History of medieval Ireland (1923), p. 174; 2nd edn. (1938), p. 161Google Scholar.

^{page 111 note 4} Irish Historical Studies, vi (1948–1949), pp. 261–70Google Scholar.

^{page 112 note 1} Ware, , De Praesulibus Hiberniae (1665), pp. 165–66Google Scholar; Harris, , The whole works of Sir James Ware concerning Ireland (1739), i, pp. 472–75Google Scholar.

^{page 113 note 1} That Marianus O Briain (1224–37) was a Cistercian monk was not known until the recent publication of the register of Stephen Lexinton by Griesser, Dom Bruno in Analecta Sacri Ordinis Cisterciensis, ii (1946), Epp. 28, 74, 77Google Scholar. Dom Griesser has printed the whole of Abbot Stephen's register: ibid., ii, 1–118; viii (1952), 181–378. The section of the register which deals with the Irish houses is in ii (1946).

^{page 113 note 2} No record of this provision survives, but David's translation from Cloyne to Cashel in 1239 is recorded in the Annals of Inisfallen ed. Airt, Seán Mac (Dublin, 1951), a. 1239–40Google Scholar.

^{page 113 note 3} Theiner, , Vetera monumenta Hibernorum et Scotorutn (Rome, 1864), p. 61Google Scholar.

^{page 113 note 4} Statuta capitulorum generalium ordinis Cisterciensis ed. Canivez, D. J. (Louvain, 1933–1939), iii p. 137Google Scholar.

^{page 113 note 5} The name MacCarwell (Mac Cerbail) is not common. It occurs in Co. Carlow in the fifteenth century: Calendar of Ormond Deeds, ed. Curtis, E., ii (1934), pp. 289–90Google Scholar.

^{page 114 note 1} Theiner, , op. cit., pp. 61–62Google Scholar.

^{page 115 note 1} Statuta, ii, pp. 62, 73; Register of Abbot Stephen, Epp. 88, 89.

^{page 115 note 2} C[alendar of] P[atent] R[olls], 1216–25, p. 381.

^{page 115 note 3} Theiner, , op. cit., p. 22.Google Scholar

^{page 115 note 4} Theiner, , op. cit., p. 61Google Scholar; C[alendar of] C[lose] R[olls], 1247–51, p. 87.

^{page 115 note 5} The Black Book of Limerick ed. MacCaffrey, J. (Dublin, 1907), pp. 48–49Google Scholar.

^{page 115 note 6} Leask, H. G., Irish churches and monastic buildings, ii (Dundalk, 1958), pp. 89–92Google Scholar. Dr. Leask thinks that the cathedral may have been begun before 1237; but this is doubtful.

^{page 116 note 1} Register of Abbot Stephen, Ep. 77.

^{page 116 note 2} Theiner, , op. cit., pp. 83–84.Google Scholar

^{page 116 note 3} Rymer, , Foedera, i, 760; C.P.R., 1258–66, p. 80.Google Scholar

^{page 116 note 4} ‘Calendar of Irish pipe roll 48 Henry III’, in 35th Report of Deputy Keeper, Public Records, Ireland; Appendix, p. 48.

^{page 116 note 5} C.P.R., 1247–58, p. 560.

^{page 116 note 6} C.P.R., 1258–66, pp. 410, 552.

_{page 117 note 1} C.P.R., 1258–66, p. 583; 1266–72, p. 660.

^{page 117 note 2} C.P.R., 1266–72, p. 270.

^{page 117 note 3} Crede Mihi: the most ancient register of Dublin, ed. Gilbert, J. T. (Dublin, 1897), p. 133Google Scholar.

^{page 117 note 4} C.P.R., 1266–72, pp. 209, 214.

^{page 117 note 5} Statuta, ed. Canivez, , ii, p. 421Google Scholar.

^{page 117 note 6} Annals of Multyfarnham, ed. Smith, A., in Tracts relating to Ireland (Dublin, 1842), p. 15Google Scholar.

^{page 118 note 1} Statuta, iii, pp. 86, 93–94, 108, 111, 122, 132, 136–37.

^{page 118 note 2} Colmcille, [Conway], The story of Mellifont (Dublin, 1958), pp. 18, 83Google Scholar.

^{page 118 note 3} Hefele-Leclercq, , His wire des Conciles, vi. i, pp. 167–81Google Scholar.

^{page 119 note 1} Powicke, F. M., Henry HI and the Lord Edward, pp. 614–16Google Scholar.

^{page 119 note 2} Kaltenbrunner, F., Mittheilungen aus dem vatikan. Archive, i. 52Google Scholar; cited by Powicke, op. cit., ii, p. 615.

^{page 119 note 3} C.P.R., 1272–79, pp. 90, 91; C.C.R., 1272–39, pp. 18, 143.

^{page 120 note 1} Hefele-Leclercq, , op. cit., vi. i, pp. 173–74Google Scholar.

^{page 120 note 2} Statuta, iii, pp. 133, 137.

^{page 120 note 3} Statuta, iii, p. 101.

^{page 120 note 4} Statuta, iii, p. 137.

^{page 120 note 5} Statuta, iii, p. 128.

^{page 121 note 1} Chronicles of the reigns of Stephen, Henry II and Richard, ed. Howlett, , ii, p. 567Google Scholar.

^{page 121 note 2} Rymer, , Foedera, ii, 39Google Scholar.

^{page 121 note 3} C.C.R., 1272–79, p. 143; C.P.R., 1272–8l, pp. 80, 83.

^{page 122 note 1} P.R.O., Chancery Misc. 10/13/18. Part of the text has been printed by Otway-Ruthven, J., loc. cit., p. 267Google Scholar.

^{page 122 note 2} C.P.R., 1272–81, p. 213; Cal. Docs. Ireland, 1252–84, no. 1360.

^{page 122 note 3} A complete list of all Cistercian houses in Ireland, English and Irish, is given by Thompson, A. Hamilton in Archaeological Journal, lxxxviii (1931), pp. 10–20Google Scholar.

^{page 122 note 4} Statuta, iii, p. 172.

^{page 123 note 1} Cal. Docs. Ireland, 1252–84, no. 1400.

^{page 123 note 2} Text printed by Otway-Ruthven, J., he. cit., p. 267Google Scholar.

^{page 123 note 3} The Annals of Inisfallen, a. 1277. He was in Oxford in July 1277, and again in July 1278; and acquired property there: A. B. Emden, A Biographical Register of the University of Oxford to A.D. 1500, s.v. ‘MacCarwell, David’.

^{page 123 note 4} Cal. Docs. Ireland, 1262–84, nos. 1361–62.

^{page 123 note 5} P.R.O., S.C.1/10/86.1 owe my knowledge of this letter to Mr Geoffrey Hand. I have printed a letter which Archbishop Nicholas of Armagh wrote to Kirkeby, John de on 14 10 1278 in Archivium Hibernkum xiii (1947), pp. 14–15Google Scholar.

^{page 124 note 1} C.P.R., 1272–81, pp. 301, 400.

^{page 124 note 2} Ibid., p. 368. David, bishop of Emly, who succeeded in 1275, had been abbot of Holy Cross: C.P.R., 1272–81, pp. 97, 101.

^{page 124 note 3} Ibid., p. 381.

^{page 124 note 4} Ibid., p. 380.

^{page 124 note 5} Orway-Ruthven, J., loc. cit., p. 263Google Scholar.

^{page 124 note 6} C.P.R., 1272–81, p. 400.

^{page 125 note 1} Ibid., p. 402.

^{page 125 note 2} Ibid., p. 416.

^{page 125 note 3} Ibid., p. 437.

^{page 125 note 4} C.C.R., 1279–88, pp. 134–35, 182–83.

^{page 125 note 5} Otway-Ruthven, J., loc. cit., p. 261Google Scholar.

^{page 127 note 1} Cal. Docs. Ireland, 1285–92, p. 306.

^{page 127 note 2} Ibid., p. 13.

^{page 127 note 3} The exact date of the archbishop's death is given on the Irish Pipe Roll 18 Edw. I, in The Report of Deputy Keeper, Public Records, Ireland; Appendix, p. 40. For his tomb, see Lynch, John, De Praesulibus Hiberniae, ed. O'Doherty, J. F. (Dublin, 1944), ii, p. 17Google Scholar.

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Edward I and the Proposed Purchase of English Law for the Irish, c. 1276–80

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