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The archbishops of Armagh and the O’Neills 1347–1471

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2016

Katharine Simms
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Extract

At the time of the Norman invasion the Irish church under its primate, Gilla Mac Liag or Gelasius, had welcomed the advent of Henry II and accepted his claim to be an ecclesiastical reformer. As a result the invaders, while ensuring that English or French clerics controlled the church in the areas they themselves had colonised, did not interfere with the primacy of all Ireland at Armagh. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the coarbship of Patrick was held in turn by ten primates of native Irish stock, a German, an Italian and only one Anglo-Norman, Luke Netterville, freely elected in 1217.

Type
Research Article
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 19 , Issue 73 , March 1974 , pp. 38 - 55
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 1974

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References

1 Chart, D.A. (ed.), The register of John Swayne (Belfast, 1935), pp 3–4,Google Scholar (hereafter cited as Cal. Swayne). See also Gwynn, A., ‘Nicholas Mac Maol Iosa’ in Feil-sgribhinn Eoin Mhic Neill, pp 394–405.Google Scholar

2 Cal. doc. Ire., 1285–2, p. 10.

3 Reeves, W. (ed.), Acts of Archbishop Colton in his metropolitan visitation of the diocese of Deny, 1397 (Dublin, 1850), pp xii-xv, 6–7 Google Scholar

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6 The historical works of Giraldus Cambrensis, ed. Wright, T., (London 1905), p. 140.Google Scholar

7 Lawlor, H.J. (ed.), ‘Fragments of a lost register of the diocese of Clogher’, in Louth Arch. Soc. Jn., 4 (1916–20), pp 248–54.Google Scholar

8 Register of Primate Milo Sweteman, f. 1 ν (T.C.D. MS T/4/1, p. 19). The original registers of primates Sweteman, Fleming, Swayne, Prene, Mey and Octavian are now deposited in the Archiépiscopal Registry at Armagh and may only be viewed by arrangement with the provincial registrar, Chancellor H. W. Love. Fair copies of these registers, made by Bishop Reeves and others, are kept in the Public Library of Armagh; I have been using a set of rough transcripts made by Bishop Reeves and his amanuensis and now kept in T.C.D. Library (MSS T/4/1-11). To facilitate reference I shall be quoting the folio numbers of the original, which are noted in the margins of both sets of transcripts, followed in brackets by the page reference for the Trinity copy. The document referred to in this note is summarized by Lawlor, H.J., ‘A calendar of the register of Archbishop Sweteman’ in R.I.A. Proc., 29 (1911–12),Google Scholar sect c, pp 213–310 (hereafter cited as Cal. Sweteman), no. 8.

9 Swayne’s Register, lib. iii, f. 97 ν (T.C.D. MS T/4/4, p. 361). See Cal. Swayne, p. 119. The number of days allowed for repentance could vary from three to twenty, as the archbishop pleased, but fifteen seems to have been the most usual period.

10 Cal. Sweteman, no. 58.

11 E.g. Cal. Swayne, p. 199; Quigley, W.G.H. and Roberts, E.F.D. (ed.), Registrum Iohannis Mey (Belfast, 1972), p. 138.Google Scholar

12 E.g. Prene’s Register, lib. i, ff 30 v, 33 r (T.C.D. MS T/4/5, pp 105–6, 116).

13 Mahaffy, J.P., ‘Two early tours in Ireland’ in Hermathena, no. 40 (Dublin, 1914), p. 5.Google Scholar

14 Lawlor, H.J., ‘A calendar of the register of Archbishop Fleming’ in R.I.A. Proc., 30 (1912–13),Google Scholar sect, c, pp 94–190 (hereafter cited as Cal. Fleming), no. 170. I must disagree with Lawlor’s dating, however. ‘Edward King of Ireland’ mentioned in the document is not Edward II, king of England and lord of Ireland, but Edward Bruce, whose right to this title is explained in O’Neill’s Remonstrance ( Curtis, and MacDowell, , Irish historical documents 1172–1922 (London 1943), pp 45–6).Google Scholar

15 Prene’s Register, lib. iii, f. 12 r (T.C.D. MS T/4/6, p. 401).

16 A.U.

17 Registrum Iohannis Mey, p. 178.

18 Stat. Ire., 1–12 Edw. IV, pp 367; Stat. Ire., Hen. VI, p. 207

19 Gwynn, A., ‘The black death in Ireland’ in Studies, 24 (1935), p. 31.Google Scholar

20 Gwynn, A., ‘Anglo-Irish church life : fourteenth and fifteenth centuries’ in Corish, Ir Catholicism, 2, no. 4 (Dublin 1968), pp. 18–19.Google Scholar

21 Garney, J. (ed.), A genealogical history of the O’Reillf’s (Dublin 1959), pp 106–7.Google Scholar

22 A.U., 1337, 1339, 1343, 1358.

23 Reeves, W., ‘;The seal of Hugh O’Neill’ in U.J.A., 1st series, 1 (1853), PP 255–8.Google Scholar

24 Rot. pat. Hib., p. 62, no. 100.

25 Sweteman’s Register, f. 17 ν (T.C.D. MS T/4/1, p. 125); Cal. Sweteman, no. 94.

26 Sweteman’s Register, f. 23 ν (T.C.D. MS T/4/1, p. 161); Cal. Sweteman, no. 123.

27 Sweteman’s Register, f. 44 r (T.C.D. MS T/4/1, p. 265); Cal. Sweteman, no. 205.

28 Sweteman’s Register, f. 17 ν (T.C.D. MS T/4/1, p. 126); Cal Sweteman, no. 94.

29 Cal. Sweteman, no. 8.

30 Sweteman’s Register, f. 2** r (T.C.D. MS T/4/1, p. 22). On referring to the original register I found the passage containing the names of the Irish chiefs obscured beneath a strip of opaque yellow binding material, but Reeves’ transcript reads ‘Nelanus magunussa mcmaguna Tirrencium dicti Nelani germanum mcdonndyll capitaneum scoticorum in ultonia commorantium’ H.J Lawlor (Cal. Sweteman, no. 10) naturally assumed that the brothers were Niall and Terence, or Toirdhealbhach, Magennis. But these are not Magennis family names, whereas Niall Mor O’Neill did have a brother Toirdhealbhach, or Terence (mentioned A.U., 1365; Cal. Sweteman, no. 192, see also genealogy in 15th century Leabhar Donn—R.I.A. MS 23/Q/10, f. 36 r, col. b, 1. 6). Moreover the captain of the Ulster Scots is almost certainly O’Neill’s constable of the galloglas (A.U., 1365–8; Curtis, E., Richard II in Ireland, Oxford 1927, PP 87–8),Google Scholar and he is unlikely to have entered into a treaty that did not include O’Neill. Reeves, in the index to his transcript of Sweteman’s Register, takes the ‘Nellanus’ of the treaty to be 4 Nellanus Oneyll ’, probably influenced by the archbishop’s November letter; see note 31 below

31 Cal. Sweteman, no. 6, where Lawlor calculates that the date ‘Monday on the vigil of S. Macutus’ means that the letter was written either on the 14 Nov. 1373 or 14 November 1379. He inclines to the later date because he knew no evidence that John Keppok was acting as justiciar as early as Nov. 1373, but this evidence is now supplied in Richardson & Sayles’, Admin., p. 91.

32 Sweteman’s Register, f. I*v (T.C.D. MS T/4/1, pp 19–20); Cal. Sweteman, no. 8.

33 Sweteman’s Register, f. 27 r (T.C.D. MS T/4/1, pp 18–34); Cal. Sweteman, no. 141. The person to whom the letter is addressed is not named, but the contents make it clear he is an Irish magnate living near Armagh city- The names of his sons, Henricus and Catholicus, identify him beyond reasonable doubt as Niall Mor O’Neill; Cu-Uladh or Catholicus is a name found also among the O’Hanlons and Magennises, but ‘Henry’ is peculiar to the O’Neills. The depravity of Henry Aimhreidh O’Neill was to earn him an enduring reputation in Ulster folklore. As a child I heard of the bad man of old, Harry Avery of Newtownstewart, years before I realised that he was a medieval O’Neill.

34 Sweteman’s Register, f. i**r (T.C.D. MS T/4/1, p. 17); Cal. Sweteman, no. 7.

35 Ibid.

36 Rot. pat. Hib., p. 108, no. 63.

37 Otway-Ruthven, , Med. Ire., pp. 314–16.Google Scholar

38 Cal. Swayne, p. 16.

39 Rot. pat. Hib., p. 147, nos 222, 240. Cal. Carew MSS. 1515–74, p. 288.

40 Legge, M.D. (ed.) Anglo-Norman letters and petitions (Oxford 1941),Google Scholar no. 7.

41 Curtis, , Richard II in Ireland, pp 136, 140, 143–4.Google Scholar

42 See Reeves, (ed.), Act of Archbishop Colton in his metropolitan visitation of the diocese of Deny, 1397.Google Scholar

43 Mahaffy, J.P., ‘Two early tours in Ireland’ in Hermathena, no. 40, p. 6.Google Scholar

44 Misc. Ir Annals, p. 173.

45 Cal. Fleming, no. 58.

46 Cal. Fleming, nos 44, 74, 150, 160, 191.

47 Fleming’s Register, f. 34 ν (T.C.D. MS T/4/2, p. 202), where Art son of Cu-Uladh O’Neill promises in letters patent ’ volo et concedo quod dictus venerabilis pater balivas et… rrbales suos pro eisdem redditibus ad distringendum mittat sine contradictione quacunque ’— thus Reeves’ transcript. On consulting the original I found that a small brown stain had obliterated about two letters at the beginning of the defective word. The context suggests very strongly the reading ‘turrbales’. Turbales, turbaces and turbarli occur frequently throughout the registers as the Latin equivalent for ‘kerne’.

48 Cal. Swayne, pp xii–xiii, 133, 149.

49 A.U 1432, 1433.

50 Rec. comm. Ire. rep., 1811–15, p. 56.

51 Cal. Swayne, p. 159.

52 Prene’s Register, lib. i, f. 147 r (T.C.D. MS T/4/6, p. 24)

53 Stat. Ire., Hen. VI, p. 205.

54 E.g. Registrum Iohannis Mey, nos 167, 222, 343.

55 Cal. Swayne, pp 160–1 ; Registrum Iohannis Mey, nos ι, 2, 323. Prene’s Register, lib. i, f. 117 r (T.C.D. MS T/4/5 PP 421–3) See Nicholls, K., Gaelic and Gaelicised Ireland in the middle ages (Dublin, 1972), pp 102–5.Google Scholar

56 Prene’s Register, Lib. i, f. 7 r, Lib. iii, f. 3 ν (T.C.D. MSS T/4/5, p. 22, T/4/6, p. 382) ; Registrum Iohannis Mey, no. 322.

57 Prene’s Register, Lib. 1, ff 30 r, 117 r, 126 r (T.C.D. MS T/4/5, pp 104, 421, 464).

58 Rot. pat. Hib., p. 263, no. 8; A.U., 1442.

59 Registrum Iohannis Mey, no. 177; Prene’s Register, lib. i, f. 7 v, lib. iii f.25 r (T.C.D. MSS T/4/5, p. 23, T/4/6, p. 431

60 Prene’s Register, lib. iii, ff 24*v-26 r (T.C.D. MS T/4/6, pp 431–434).

61 Dillon, M. (ed.), ‘Ceart Ui Neill’ in Studia Celtica, 1 (1966), pp 11–13.Google Scholar

62 Registrum Iohannis Mey, no. 323.

63 Prene’s Register, lib. i, f. 17 ν (T.C.D. MS T/4/5, p. 60).

64 Octavian’s Register, lib. i, f. 49 r (T.C.D. MS T/4/9, PP 199–200).

65 Gwynn, , Med. province Armagh, pp 4–11.Google Scholar

66 See especially the obituary-notice of the bishop of Killaloe, A.U., Ann. Conn., 1525. Rosa Maguire, bishop of Clogher, was in a similar position (A.U., 1449, 1483).