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Factions, feuds and noble power in the lordship of Ireland, c. 1356–1496

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Peter Crooks
Peter Crooks*
Affiliation:
Department of History, Trinity College Dublin
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Extract

On 17 September 1496 Gerald, eighth earl of Kildare (the ‘Great Earl’), landed at Howth, County Dublin, after a lengthy and troubled voyage from England. One of the earl’s fellow travellers gave thanks to God for his safe arrival. If Kildare did likewise, his gratitude probably sprang less from his delivery from the natural elements than from his survival of a hostile political climate at court. Since the battle of Bosworth in 1485 not one but two Yorkist pretenders had found support in Ireland. The first of them — Lambert Simnel — was crowned in May 1487 as ‘King Edward VI’ in Christ Church cathedral, Dublin, after which a parliament was held in his name. Kildare was chief governor of Ireland during both conspiracies. More recently he had faced allegations of treason during the expedition of Sir Edward Poynings (1494-5). Despite this dubious record of loyalty to the newly established Tudor dynasty, on 6 August 1496 Henry VII appointed the Great Earl lord deputy of Ireland.

Type
Research Article
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 35 , Issue 140 , November 2007 , pp. 425 - 454
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 2007

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References

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5 Quoted in Conway, Hen. VII, Scot. & Ire., pp 226–9 (punctuation added).

6 See esp. Frame, Robin, English lordship in Ireland, 1318–1361 (Oxford, 1982)Google Scholar; idem, Ireland and Britain, 1170–1450 (London, 1998), pp 171–220; idem, The political development of the British Isles, 1100–1400 (Oxford, 1990).

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8 See, for example, Frame, Eng. lordship, ‘Conclusions: past and future’ (esp. pp 333–9), which can be read as an agenda for the late medieval period; Rees Davies, ‘In praise of British history’ in idem (ed.), The British Isles: comparisons, contrasts and connections, 1100–1500 (Edinburgh, 1988, p. 19.

9 The register of John Swayne, archbishop of Armagh and primate of Ireland, 1418–1439, ed. Chart, D. A. (Belfast, 1935), p. 111Google Scholar.

10 Rot. pat. Hib., p. 69. This feud from the year 1358 was by no means exceptional: see Nicholls, K. W., ‘The development of lordship in County Cork’ in O’Flanagan, Patrick and Buttimer, Cornelius G. (eds), Cork: history and society (Dublin, 1993), p. 170Google Scholar.

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16 As a sample, see episodes from 1378, 1434 and 1493: Sayles, G. O. (ed.), Documents on the affairs of Ireland before the king’s council (Dublin, 1979)Google Scholar, no. 257; Cal. pat. rolls, 1377–81, p. 271; Cal. close rolls, 1377–81, pp 171–2, 225; Chartul. St Mary’s, Dublin, ii, 292.

17 For example, see Cal. pat. rolls, 1391–6, pp 138, 520; Cal. close rolls, 1389–92, p. 463.

18 On the identity of the colonists see esp. James Lydon, ‘The middle nation’ in idem (ed.), The English in medieval Ireland... (Dublin, 1984), pp 1–26; Ellis, S. G., ‘Nationalist historiography and the English and Gaelic worlds in the late middle ages’ in Brady, Ciaran (ed.), Interpreting Irish history: the debate on historical revisionism, 1938–1994 (Dublin, 1994), pp 161–80Google Scholar; Simms, Katharine, ‘Bards and barons: the Anglo-Irish aristocracy and the native culture’ in Bartlett, Robert and Mackay, Angus (eds), Medieval frontier societies (Oxford, 1989), pp 177–97Google Scholar; Frame, Ire. & Brit., pp 131–50; Lydon, James, ‘Nation and race in medieval Ireland’ in Simon Forde, Johnson, Lesley and Murray, A. V. (eds), Concepts of national identity in the middle ages (Leeds, 1995), pp 103–24Google Scholar; Turville-Petre, Thorlac, England the nation: language, literature, and national identity, 1290–1340 (Oxford, 1996), pp 155–75CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Frame, Robin, ‘Exporting state and nation: being English in medieval Ireland’ in Scales, Len and Zimmer, Oliver (eds), Power and the nation in European history (Cambridge, 2005), pp 143–65CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

19 See Crooks, Peter, ‘“Hobbes”, “dogs” and politics in the Ireland of Lionel of Antwerp, c. 1361–6’ in Haskins Soc. Jn., xvi (2005), pp 117-48Google Scholar.

20 The most detailed study of the Talbot-Ormond conflict is Matthew, E. A. E., ‘The governing of the Lancastrian lordship of Ireland in the time of James Butler, fourth earl of Ormond, c. 1420–1452’ (Ph.D. thesis, University of Durham, 1994Google Scholar); but see also Griffith, Margaret, ‘The Talbot-Ormond straggle for control of the Anglo-Irish government, 1414–47’ in I.H.S., ii, no. 8 (Sept. 1941), pp 376-97Google Scholar; Richardson, H. G. and Sayles, G. O., The Irish parliament in the middle ages (2nd ed., Philadelphia, 1964), pp 170–73, 200–02Google Scholar; Griffiths, R. A., The reign of Henry VI: the exercise of royal authority, 1422–1461 (Stroud, 1998), pp 162–7, 411–19Google Scholar; Simms, ‘Bards and barons’, pp 183–7.

21 Ellis, S. G., Ireland in the age of the Tudors, 1447–1603: English expansion and the end of Gaelic rule (Harlow, 1998), pp 51–97Google Scholar; idem, Tudor frontiers, esp. pp 107–45. See also Curtis, Edmund, ‘Richard, duke of York, as viceroy of Ireland, 1447–1460 ...’ in R.S.A.I. Jn., lxii (1932), pp 158-86Google Scholar; Gillespie, J. L., ‘Richard, duke of York, as king’s lieutenant in Ireland: the white rose a-blooming’ in The Ricardian, v (1980), pp 194–201Google Scholar; Gorman, Vincent, ‘Richard, duke of York, and the development of an Irish faction’ in R.I.A. Proc, lxxxv (1985), sect. C, pp 169-79Google Scholar; Pugh, T. B., ‘Richard Plantagenet (1411-60), duke of York, as the king’s lieutenant in France and Ireland’ in Rowe, J. G. (ed.), Aspects of late medieval government and society: essays presented to J. R. Lander (Toronto, 1986), pp 107–41Google Scholar; Johnson, P. A., Duke Richard of York, 1411–1460 (Oxford, 1988), pp 51–77, 194–201Google Scholar; Wood, Herbert, ‘Two chief governors in Ireland at the same time’ in R.S.A.I. Jn., lviii (1928), pp 156-7Google Scholar; Cosgrove, Art, ‘Parliament and the Anglo-Irish community: the declaration of 1460’ idem, in and McGuire, J. I. (eds), Parliament and community: Historical Studies XIV (Belfast, 1983), pp 25–41;Google ScholarCosgrove, Art, ‘The execution of the earl of Desmond, 1468’ in Kerry Arch. Soc. Jn., viii (1975), pp 11–27Google Scholar.

22 See references to lands lying waste after being ravaged by the ‘army of the earl of Desmond’ in Ormond deeds, 1350–1413, no. 316. The dating of the document is uncertain, but it probably refers to the events of 1344–5, for which see Gleeson, Dermot F., ‘The Annals of Nenagh’ in Anal. Hib., no. 12 (1943), p. 160Google Scholar; Frame, Eng. lordship, pp 272–4. See also ‘Complaint of the Gentlemen, Inheritors, and Freeholders of the County of Tipperary to Henry VIII [1542] ‘, which catalogues outbreaks of disorder dating back to the reign of Henry VI (Ormond deeds, 1509–47, no. 267).

23 O’Sullivan, Anne and Riain, Pádraig O (eds), Poems on marcher lords from a sixteenth-century Tipperary manuscript (London, 1987), pp 78–9, 117Google Scholar. There is another possible reference to the Desmond-Ormond conflict in an elegy for James Purcell (ibid., pp 40–41, 107).

24 Gerald of Wales, The history and topography of Ireland, ed. O’Meara, J. J. (Penguin ed., Harmondsworth, 1982), pp 108-9Google Scholar.

25 Edmund Campion discusses the ‘faccions of the nobilitye in Ireland’ in his Two bokes of the histories of Ireland, ed. Vossen, A. F. (Assen, 1963), p. 110Google Scholar. Stanihurst, Richard writes of Irish influence as a ‘canker’ that ‘bred rebellion, [which] raked thereto warres, and so consequently the vtter decay and desolation of that worthy countrey’ (Holinshed’s Irish chronicle: the historie of Ireland from the first inhabitation thereof, unto the yeare 1509. Collected by Raphaell Holinshed, & continued till the yeare 1547 by Richarde Stanyhurst, ed. Miller, Liam and Power, Eileen (Dublin, 1979), pp 14, 16)Google Scholar. Lord Chancellor Gerrard likewise talks of newcomers being poisoned with ‘Irishe infeccion’ (McNeill, Charles (ed.), ‘Lord Chancellor Gerrard’s notes of his report on Ireland with extracts from original Irish records exhibited by him before the Privy Council in England, 1577–8’ in Anal. Hib., no. 2 (1931), p. 97)Google Scholar. Edmund Spenser deals with the Geraldine-Butler antagonism in a section on how the original colonists became ‘much more lawlesse and licentious then the very wilde Irish’; the two families became ‘adversaries and corrivales one against the other’ and, on account of the ‘greatnes of their late conquests and seignories they grew insolent, and bent both that regall authority, and also their private powers, one against another, to the utter subversion of themselves, and strengthening of the Irish againe’ (A view of the state of Ireland ..., ed. Hadfield, Andrew and Maley, Willy (Oxford, 1997), p. 67)Google Scholar.

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28 See Nicholas Canny’s comment that ‘English sixteenth-century descriptions of Irish customs leading to the conclusion that the Irish (by which sometimes was meant the Gaelic Irish and sometimes the entire population) were beasts in the shape of men were offered as legitimations for drastic actions already under way or in prospect and cannot therefore be considered causes of those actions’ (original emphasis) (‘Revising the revisionist’ in I.H.S., xxx, no. 118 (Nov. 1996), p. 250Google Scholar). For the influence of Gerald de Barri on early modern writers see Gillingham, John, The English in the twelfth century: imperialism, national identity and political values (Woodbridge, 2000), esp. pp 145-50Google Scholar; Hiram Morgan, ‘Giraldus Cambrensis and the Tudor conquest of Ireland’ in idem (ed.), Political ideology in Ireland, 1541–1641 (Dublin, 1999), pp 22–44.

29 Griffith, ‘Talbot-Ormond struggle’, pp 376, 390.

30 Otway-Ruthven, Med. Ire., p. 376. Margaret Griffith also notes the ‘parallelism which can often be observed between English and Anglo-Irish history’ and comments sadly on the destruction of English ‘constitutional machinery’ in Ireland (‘Talbot-Ormond struggle’, p. 376).

31 Stubbs, William, The constitutional history of England in its origins and development (3rd ed., 3 vols, Oxford, 1883-4), iii, 637Google Scholar. Note also his comment that the ‘All that was good and great in [medieval life] was languishing even to death ... The sun of the Plantagenets went down in clouds and thick darkness; the coming of the Tudors gave as yet no promise of light; it was “as the morning spread upon the mountains”, darkest before dawn’ (ibid., p. 631).

32 SirFortescue, John, The governance of England, ed. Plummer, Charles (London, 1885), pp 15–16Google Scholar.

33 The key essay is McFarlane, K. B., ‘Bastard feudalism’ in I.H.R. Bull, xx (1943-5), pp 161-80Google Scholar, but all his writings were and are influential. They were published posthumously in three main collections: Lancastrian kings and Lollard knights (Oxford, 1972)Google Scholar; The nobility of later medieval England (Oxford, 1973); England in the fifteenth century: collected essays (London, 1981)Google Scholar. The literature sparked by McFarlane is vast and has generated much debate. The most recent survey is Hicks, Michael, Bastard feudalism (London, 1995)Google Scholar.

34 McFarlane, Nobility of later med. Eng., p. 3.

35 Ibid., p. 120.

36 Waugh, S. L., ‘Tenure to contract: lordship and clientage in thirteenth-century England’ in E.H.R., ci (1986), pp 811-39CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Coss, P. R., ‘Bastard feudalism revised’ in Past & Present, no. 125 (1989), pp 27–64CrossRefGoogle Scholar; David Carpenter, P. R. Coss and David Crouch, ‘Debate: Bastard feudalism revised’, ibid., no. 131 (1991), pp 165–203; Crouch, David, ‘From Stenton to McFarlane: models of societies of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries’ in R. Hist. Soc. Trans., 6th ser., v (1995), pp 179–200CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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38 The phrase is that of Harriss, G. L., ‘The dimensions of politics’ in Britnell, R. H. and Pollard, A. J. (eds), The McFarlane legacy: studies in late medieval politics and society (Stroud, 1995), p. 10Google Scholar. See also Powell, Edward, Kingship, law and society: criminal justice in the reign of Henry V (Oxford, 1989), pp 1–20Google Scholar; idem, ‘After “After McFarlane”: the poverty of patronage and the case for constitutional history’ in Clayton, D. J., Davies, R. G. and McNiven, Peter (eds), Trade, devotion and governance: papers in later medieval history (Stroud, 1994), pp 1–16Google Scholar; Carpenter, Christine, ‘Political and constitutional history: before and after McFarlane’ in Britnell, & Pollard, (eds), McFarlane legacy, pp 175–206Google Scholar.

39 McFarlane, Nobility of later med. Eng., p. 120; Harriss in McFarlane, Eng. in 15th cent., pp xxiii-xxiv.

40 Hicks, Michael, Richard III and his rivals: magnates and their motives in the Wars of the Roses (London, 1991), p. 6Google Scholar.

41 See their extended critique, Richardson, H. G. and Sayles, G. O., The governance of mediaeval England from the Conquest to Magna Carta (Edinburgh, 1963), pp v–vii, 1–21Google Scholar.

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43 Richardson & Sayles, Ir. pari, in the middle ages, pp 162, 171; idem, ‘Irish revenue, 1278–1384’ in R.I.A. Proc, lxii (1961-2), sect. C, pp 96–9.

44 H. Cam, M., ‘Stubbs seventy years after’ in Cambridge Hist. Jn., ix (1948), p. 145Google Scholar.

45 Eadem, , ‘The decline and fall of English feudalism’ in History, xxv (1940), p. 225Google Scholar.

46 Frame, Ire. & Brit., p. 5. Otway-Ruthven expresses her thanks to Cam in the foreword to her first book, The king ‘s secretary and the signet office in the fifteenth century (Cambridge, 1939)Google Scholar, and many years later contributed to her former teacher’s festschrift: Otway-Ruthven, A. J., ‘The mediaeval Irish chancery’ in Album Helen Maud Cam (2 vols, Louvain & Paris, 1961), ii, 119–38Google Scholar. That the exchange of views was mutual is clear from Cam’s acknowledgement of academic debts to Otway-Ruthven: Cam, H. M., Law-finders and law-makers in medieval England: collected studies in legal and constitutional history (London, 1962), pp 22, 54Google Scholar. Some correspondence between the two survives in the research library of the Centre for Medieval History, Trinity College Dublin.

47 Otway-Ruthven, Med. Ire., pp 339–76. Her view on fifteenth-century factions is expressed best at p. 376.

48 See, for example, Curtis, Edmund, A history of medieval Ireland (2nd ed., London, 1938), pp 215-17, 288–9, 295–6, 309, 322Google Scholar; idem, History of Ireland (new ed., London, 2002), pp 95–6, 115–16, 122–3, 127–37; Conway, Hen. VII, Scot. & Ire., pp 132–3.

49 Curtis, ‘Richard, duke of York’, p. 184. Curtis elsewhere described how ‘Edward III had ... striven to rescue Anglo-Ireland from the baronage’ in Conway, Hen. VII, Scot. & Ire., p. 132. For one strikingly Stubbsian interpretation see Curtis on the Modus tenendi parliamentum as the basis for ‘Lancastrian constitutionalism’ (Med. Ire., p. 292); cf. Stubbs, , Constitutional hist., iii, 5–6Google Scholar.

50 In the 1950s Lydon was a pupil of Edwards, J. G., who produced a cautious but ultimately laudatory pamphlet on Stubbs in 1952: William Stubbs (London, 1952)Google Scholar. Edwards’s influence is evident, for example, in Lydon’s interest in the plena potestas of the commons in the Irish parliament: see Edwards, J. G., ‘The plena potestas of English parliamentary representatives’ in Fryde, E. B. and Miller, Edward (eds), Historical studies of the English parliament (Cambridge, 1970), pp 136–49Google Scholar; Lydon, J. F., ‘William of Windsor and the Irish parliament’ in E.H.R., lxxx (1965), pp 260-61CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem, Law and disorder in thirteenth-century Ireland: the Dublin parliament of 1297 (Dublin, 1997), pp 132–3.

51 Lydon, James, The lordship of Ireland in the middle ages (2nd ed., Dublin, 2003), pp 179, 130Google Scholar; see also idem, Ireland in the later middle ages (Dublin, 1973), pp 48–56, 134–40. Lydon traces the ‘breakdown in the rule of law’ back to the late thirteenth century in Law & disorder, p. 17 (cf. Cam, Law-finders & law-makers, pp 11–21). For an unambiguous statement of Lydon’s Plummerian view of ‘bastard feudalism’ as demonstrative of the ‘self-interest’ of ‘the greatest of the magnates’ and tending to create ‘factions [that were] a permanent threat to the peace’ see New hist. Ire., ii, 185.

52 Lydon, Lordship, pp 132–3.

53 O’Brien, A. F., ‘Politics, economy and society: the development of Cork and the Irish south-coast region, c. 1170 to c. 1583’ in O’Flanagan, & Buttimer, (eds), Cork, pp 117, 136Google Scholar. See also idem, ‘The territorial ambitions of Maurice fitz Thomas, first earl of Desmond, with particular reference to the barony and manor of Inchiquin, Co. Cork’ in R.I.A. Proc, lxxxii (1982), sect. C, pp 59–88, esp. pp 85–6; idem, ‘Medieval Youghal: the development of an Irish seaport trading town, c. 1200 to c. 1500’ in Peritia, v (1986), p. 361, where the author talks of the early fourteenth century as a ‘time of transition from royal to seigneurial power’ in which the magnates ‘struggled to wrest power from the royal government and to impose their will on those beneath them in their own regions’.

54 Johnston, Dorothy, ‘The interim years: Richard II and Ireland, 1395–1399’ in Lydon, (ed.), Eng. & Ire., pp 183-4Google Scholar. Johnston speaks in terms of ‘internecine’ rivalries and identifies ‘divisions within Anglo-Ireland’ as one of the ‘dominant forces in the fifteenth-century lordship, [which] continued to accelerate the decay of royal authority in Ireland’ (ibid., pp 183, 190–91).

55 Tuck, J. A., ‘Anglo-Irish relations, 1382–1393’ in R.I.A. Proc, lxix (1970), sect. C, p. 17Google Scholar.

56 New. hist. Ire., ii, 390–91; see also ibid., p. 374. For a similar interpretation see Cosgrove, Art, Late medieval Ireland, 1370–1541 (Dublin, 1981), pp 16–17, 43–1Google Scholar.

57 Griffiths, Reign of Hen. VI, p. 163.

58 Ibid., p. 412. Griffiths also refers to the White Earl of Ormond as a ‘self-willed magnate of violent disposition’ and a practitioner of ‘brazen authoritarianism’ (ibid., pp 413–14.) Such statements are belied by the efforts of the White Earl, and earlier his father, to restrict and regulate billeting and purveyance: see Empey & Simms, ‘Ordinances of the White Earl’, pp 185–6; MacCotter, Paul and Nicholls, Kenneth (eds), The pipe roll of Cloyne ... (Midleton, 1996), pp 130–35Google Scholar.

59 Note, for instance, the titles of two recent books: Edwards, David, The Ormond lordship in County Kilkenny, 1515–1642: the rise and fall of Butler feudal power (Dublin, 2003)Google Scholar; McCormack, Anthony M., The earldom of Desmond, 1463–1583: the decline and crisis of a feudal lordship (Dublin, 2005)Google Scholar. See also Bradshaw, Brendan, The Irish constitutional revolution of the sixteenth century (Cambridge, 1979), pp 3–31CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Carey, Vincent P., Surviving the Tudors: the ‘wizard’ earl of Kildare and English rule in Ireland, 1537–1586 (Dublin, 2002)Google Scholar, chs 1, 3; Brady, Ciaran, The chief governors: the rise and fall of reform government in Tudor Ireland, 1536–1588 (Cambridge, 1994), pp 169–208Google Scholar. For a recent critique of the interpretation of ‘bastard feudalism’ among early modernists see Fiona Fitzsimons, ‘Cardinal Wolsey, the native affinities, and the failure of reform in Henrician Ireland’ in Edwards, David (ed.), Regions and rulers in Ireland, 1100–1650: essays for Kenneth Nicholls (Dublin, 2004), pp 80–92Google Scholar.

60 Proc. king’s council, Ire., 1392–3, p. 262; Curtis & McDowell (eds), Ir. hist, docs, p. 68. Another much-quoted example is the denunciation of the earls of Ormond and Desmond in 1380 by Bishop Richard Wye of Cloyne, for which see Ormond deeds, 1350–1413, no. 245.

61 The phrase is adapted from Frame, Eng. lordship, p. x.

62 Hicks, Ric. III & his rivals, p. 14. For the difficulties of interpreting administrative and legal sources see Hunnisett, R. F., ‘The reliability of inquisitions as historical evidence’ in Bullough, D. A. and Storey, R. L. (eds), The study of medieval records: essays in honour of Kathleen Major (Oxford, 1981), pp 206–35Google Scholar; Given, James Buchanan, Society and homicide in thirteenth-century England (Stanford, Calif., 1977), pp 4-32Google Scholar; Clanchy, Michael, ‘A medieval realist: interpreting the rules at Barnwell priory, Cambridge’ in Attwooll, E. M. M. (ed.), Perspectives in jurisprudence (Glasgow, 1977), pp 176–94Google Scholar; Musson, Anthony, Public order and law enforcement: the local administration of criminal justice, 1294–1350 (Woodbridge, 1996), pp 208–22Google Scholar; Carpenter, Christine, ‘Law, justice and landowners in late medieval England’ in Law & History Review, i (1983), pp 226-7Google Scholar.

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68 Davies, R. R., ‘The survival of the bloodfeud in medieval Wales’ in History, liv (1969), pp 338-57CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem, ‘The law of the march’ in Welsh Hist. Rev., v (1970), p. 15. See also Otway-Ruthven, A. J., ‘The constitutional position of the great lordships of south Wales’ in R. Hist. Soc. Trans., 5th sen, viii (1958), pp 15–17Google Scholar1. On the vendetta see Bloch, Marc, Feudal society, trans. Manyon, L. A. (London, 1961), pp 125-30Google Scholar.

69 Stones, E. L. G., ‘The Folvilles of Ashby-Folville, Leicestershire, and their associates in crime, 1326–1347’ in R. Hist. Soc. Trans., 5th ser., vii (1957), pp 117-36CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bellamy, J. G., ‘The Coterel Gang: an anatomy of a band of fourteenth-century criminals’ in E.H.R., lxxix (1964), pp 698–717CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem, Crime and public order in England in the later middle ages (London, 1973), pp 69–88; Hanawalt, B. A., ‘Fur-collar crime: the pattern of crime among the fourteenth century English nobility’ in Jn. Soc. Hist., viii (1975), pp 1–17Google Scholar; eadem, , Crime and conflict in English communities, 1300–1348 (London, 1979)Google Scholar. For a reassessment see Musson, Public order & law enforcement, pp 264–9.

70 Richardson, H. G. and Sayles, G. O., Parliaments and councils of medieval Ireland, i (Dublin, 1947), p. 21Google Scholar.

71 Cal. pat. rolls, 1370–74, p. 378. For another case see ibid., 1399-1401, p. 478.

72 Griffiths, R. A., ‘Local rivalries and national politics: the Percies, the Nevilles, and the duke of Exeter, 1452–55’ in Speculum, xliii (1968), pp 589–632CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Jeffs, Robin, ‘The Poynings-Percy dispute: an example of the interplay of open strife and legal action in the fifteenth century’ in I.H.R. Bull., xxxiv (1961), pp 148-64Google Scholar; J. R. Lander, ‘Marriage and politics in the fifteenth century: the Nevilles and the Wydevilles’, ibid., xxxvi (1963), pp 119–52.

73 Saul, Nigel, Richard II (New Haven, 1997), pp 148–204, 366–434Google Scholar; Gillingham, John, The Wars of the Roses: peace and conflict in fifteenth-century England (London, 1981)Google Scholar; Carpenter, Christine, The Wars of the Roses: politics and the constitution in England, c. 1437–1509 (Cambridge, 1997)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

74 Hyams, P. R., Rancor and reconciliation in medieval England (Ithaca, N.Y., 2003)Google Scholar; Pollock, Frederick and Maitland, F. W., A history of English law before the time of Edward I (2 vols, Cambridge, 1895), i, 31–2,46Google Scholar; ii, 574–5; Kaeuper, R. W., War, justice and public order: England and France in the later middle ages (Oxford, 1988), pp 260–67Google Scholar.

75 Otway-Ruthven, A. J., ‘Knight service in Ireland’ in R.S.A.I. Jn., lxxxix (1959), pp 13–15Google Scholar; Hand, G. J., English law in Ireland, 1290–1324 (Cambridge, 1967), pp 1–5Google Scholar; Paul Brand, ‘Ireland and the literature of the early common law’ in idem, The making of the common law (London, 1992), pp 445–63; Frame, Robin, Colonial Ireland, 1169–1370 (Dublin, 1981), pp 94-5Google Scholar; idem, Ire. & Brit., pp 134–5.

76 For example, Stat. Ire. John-Hen.V, pp 388–91, 434–7.

77 For the ‘commerce’ between Gaelic law and English common law, which led to a ‘hybrid law, with, probably, strong regional variations’, see Niocaill, Gearóid Mac, ‘The interaction of the laws’ in Lydon, (ed.), English in med. Ire., pp 109, 117Google Scholar. The law of the march was far more precisely formulated on the Anglo-Scottish border: see Summerson, Henry, ‘The early development of the laws of the Anglo-Scottish marches, 1249–1448’ in Gordon, W. M. and Fergus, T. D. (eds), Legal history in the making ... (London, 1991), 29–42Google Scholar; Scott, W. W., ‘The march laws reconsidered’ in Grant, Alexander and Stringer, Keith (eds), Medieval Scotland: crown, lordship and community ... (Edinburgh, 1993), pp 114–30Google Scholar; Ellis, Tudor frontiers, pp 37–9.

78 Stat. Ire., John-Hen.V, pp 388–91 The second quotation is from another prohibition, with a detailed description of the custom of the march, made in 1360 (Lawlor, H. J. (ed.), ‘Calendar of the Liber Ruber of the diocese of Ossory’ in R.I.A. Proc, xxvii (1907-9)Google Scholar, sect. C, p. 184); for the original Latin see McNeill (ed.), ‘Lord Chancellor Gerrard’s notes’, pp 266–8.

79 For the debate on the utility of the term ‘feudalism’ see Brown, E. A. R., ‘The tyranny of a construct: feudalism and historians of medieval Europe’ in Amer. Hist. Rev., lxxix (1974), pp 1063-88CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Reynolds, Susan, Fiefs and vassals: the medieval evidence reinterpreted (Oxford, 1994)Google Scholar, from which the ‘spectacles’ metaphor is borrowed (pp 11–12). Bean, J. M. W. provides a similar service for the term ‘bastard feudalism’ in From lord to patron: lordship in late medieval England (Manchester, 1989), pp 1–9Google Scholar. Richmond, Colin has pronounced that ‘bastard feudalism is dead’ (‘An English mafia?’ in Nottingham Medieval Studies, xxxvi (1992), p. 240)Google Scholar.

80 Bean, From lord to patron, esp. pp 234–5; Davies, R. R., ‘The medieval state: the tyranny of a concept?’ in Jn. Hist. Sociology, xvi (2003), pp 293-6Google Scholar. See also Davies’s extensive discussion of ‘lordship’ in idem, Lordship and society in the march of Wales, 1282–1400 (Oxford, 1978), esp. pp 65–6. For the term’s appeal in relation to Ireland see idem, ‘Lordship or colony?’ in Lydon (ed.), English in med. Ire., pp 142–9. I am indebted to Professor Robin Frame for advice on this point.

81 Stat. Ire., John-Hen. V, pp 442–3.

82 Of the sparse comments made by Irish historians on the subject of ‘bastard feudalism’, several have come from Gaelic specialists: Byrne, F. J., ‘Senchas: the nature of Gaelic historical tradition’ in Barry, J. G. (ed.), Historical Studies IX (Belfast, 1974), p. 140Google Scholar; Simms, Katharine, From kings to warlords: the changing political structure of Gaelic Ireland in the later middle ages (Woodbridge, 1987), pp 113, 147–9Google Scholar. Although Gaelic Ireland found it extremely difficult to adapt to ‘feudalism’ as introduced by the English invasion from the 1160s, Gaelic lordship was not incompatible with ‘bastard feudal’ networks.

83 Red Bk Kildare, nos 11–12, 14–15.

84 Ormond deeds, 1350–1413, nos 33, 35–7, 39, 46, 126, 205 (i), 219, 247, 323 (ii), 347; ibid., 1413-1509, nos 8, 38, 140, 177, 320; Red Bk Kildare, nos 76, 139, 165–9; Nicholls, K. W., ‘Abstracts of Mandeville deeds’ in Anal. Hit., no. 32 (1985), pp 18–19Google Scholar; Holmes, G. A., The estates of the higher nobility in fourteenth-century England (Cambridge, 1957), pp 129–30Google Scholar; Cal. pat. rolls, 1401–5, p. 229. The study of such documents in a ‘British’ context has been greatly facilitated by the publication of superior editions of life indentures of Irish provenance, with full cross-references to the original sources, in Jones, Michael and Walker, Simon (eds), ‘Private indentures for life service in peace and war, 1278–1476’ in Camden Misc. XXXIIGoogle Scholar (Camden 5th ser., iii, 1994), nos 10, 12, 43–5, 68,90,129. For discussions of some of these documents see Frame, Ire. & Brit., pp 201–2, 292–7; New hist Ire., ii, 325–9; Ciaran Parker, ‘The politics and society of County Waterford in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries’ (Ph.D. thesis, Trinity College Dublin, 1992), pp 188–238. For the indenture of retinue in England see Prince, A. E., ‘The indenture system under Edward III’ in Edwards, J. G., Galbraith, V. H. and Jacob, E. F. (eds), Historical essays in honour of James Tait (Manchester, 1933), pp 283-97Google Scholar; Bean, From lord to patron, passim; Jones & Walker (eds), ‘Private indentures’, pp 9–33. For similar arrangements in Scotland see Wormald, Jenny, Lords and men in Scotland: bonds of manrent, 1442–1603 (Edinburgh, 1985)Google Scholar.

85 Lydon, J. F., ‘The hobelar: an Irish contribution to mediaeval warfare’ in Ir. Sword, ii (1954-6), pp 12–16Google Scholar.

86 Simms, Kings to warlords, p. 172.

87 Jones & Walker (eds), ‘Private indentures’, no. 43; Ormond deeds, 1350–1413, no. 33. The provision of a lump sum was unusual in England, but common in the surviving indentures from Ireland: see Jones and Walker (eds), ‘Private indentures’, p. 24.

88 See ibid., pp 12–13; Wormald, Lords & men, pp 86–7, 91–9.

89 Conway, Hen. VII, Scot. & Ire., p. 226.

90 Cf. the language of Scottish bonds of manrent that refer to ‘kin freindis allya parttakaris tennentis servandis and dependaris’ (Wormald, Lords & men, p. 90). For studies of English and Scottish affinities see, e.g., Carpenter, Christine, ‘The Beauchamp affinity: a study of bastard feudalism at work’ in E.H.R., xcv (1980), pp 514-32CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Walker, Simon, The Lancastrian affinity, 1361–99 (Oxford, 1990)Google Scholar; Brown, Michael, The Black Douglases: war and lordship in late medieval Scotland, 1300–1455 (East Linton, 1998)Google Scholar.

91 For Desmond’s clients see Frame, Ire. & Brit., pp 198–9; Nicholls, ‘Development of lordship’, pp 189–90; Waters, K. A., ‘The earls of Desmond in the fourteenth century’ (Ph.D. thesis, University of Durham, 2004), ch. 5Google Scholar.

92 Price, L. (ed.), ‘Armed forces of the Irish chiefs in the early sixteenth century’ in R.S.A.I. Jn., lxii (1932), p. 203.Google Scholar For the re-dating of this document to the 1480s see New hist. Ire., iii, 32; Nicholls, K. W., ‘Anglo-French Ireland and after’ in Peritia, i (1982), p. 394Google Scholar. On the private military arrangements of the eighth earl of Kildare, which also included galloglas and kern, see Ellis, Tudor frontiers, pp 128–31.

93 Cambrensis, Giraldus, Expugnatio Hibernica: the conquest of Ireland, ed. Scott, A. B. and Martin, F. X. (Dublin, 1978), pp 168-9, 174–5Google Scholar.

94 Red Bk Kildare, no. 11.

95 Richardson & Sayles, Ir. pari, in middle ages, p. 72; Wright, Thomas (ed.), A contemporary narrative of the proceedings against Dame Alice Kyteler (Camden Soc, London, 1843), pp 16–20Google Scholar. The narrative in fact only refers to one man, William Outlaw, as being dressed in le Poer’s livery (de robis suis habens in comitiva), but when le Poer left the hall after an abusive exchange with the bishop, he took ‘his knights and the aforesaid William with him’, so obviously his band of supporters extended beyond one man. For the feud between Ie Poer and the bishop of Ossory see Frame, Eng. lordship, pp 170–72.

96 The English provision of 1390 states that ‘grievous complaint and great Clamour hath been made ... of great and outrageous Oppressions and Maintenances made to the Damage of Us and of our People ... whereof many are the more encouraged and bold in their Maintenance and evil Deeds aforesaid, because that they be of the Retinue of Lords and others of our said Realm, with Fees, Robes, and other Liveries called Liveries of Company’ (Stat. of realm, ii, 74–5). Victorian historians joined the chorus of denunciation. ‘Liveries’, wrote Stubbs, ‘became the badges of the great factions of the court, and the uniform, so to speak, in which the wars of the fifteenth century were fought’ (Stubbs, Constitutional hist., iii, 552).

97 For acts in England concerning liveries see Stat. of realm, ii, 3, 74–5, 84, 93, 155–6, 240–41, 426–9. For a discussion of some of the measures against livery see Bean, From lord to patron, pp 200–30; Saul, Nigel, ‘The Commons and the abolition of badges’ in Parliamentary History, ix (1990), pp 302-15Google Scholar; Hicks, Michael, ‘The 1468 statute of livery’ in Historical Research, lxiv (1991), pp 15–28CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

98 Conway, Hen. VII, Scot. & Ire., pp 121–2; Stat. Ire., Hen. VII & VIII, p. 92; Stat. Ire., i, 45–6.

99 Cal. pat. rolls, 1485–94, p. 316.

100 Conway, Hen. VII, Scot. & Ire., pp 128–9; Stat. Ire., Hen. VII & VIII, p. 94; Stat. Ire., i, 55.

101 P. R. Coss in Carpenter, Coss & Crouch, ‘Debate: Bastard feudalism revised’, p. 193.

102 On maintenance and corruption of justice in England see Stat. of realm, i, 256, 264, 304–5; ii, 3, 134, 589.

103 Sayles (ed.), Docs on affairs of Ire., no. 212.

104 Stat. Ire., John-Hen. V, pp 438–41. The related issue of barrators is tackled ibid., pp 458–61.

105 This can be judged from the brief glimpse we have of the business of the Irish council in 1392–3: Proc. king’s council, Ire., 1392–3, nos 51, 57, 64, 71, 76, 79, 106, 123, 125, 128, 135, 146, 179,211.

106 Cal. pat. rolls, 1367–70, pp 60, 198–9; Cal. close rolls, 1369–74, pp 231, 411; ibid., 1374-77, pp 145–6. The lands were held by the English Mautravers family, whose interest in this Irish manor was revived in the 1350s and 1360s (Frame, Eng. lordship, pp 61–2).

107 Proc. king’s council, Ire., 1392–3, pp 274, 278; Stat. Ire., Hen. VI, p. 51; Proc. privy council, 1436–43, pp 318–19.

108 Frame, Eng. lordship, p. 46.

109 Including, significantly, one who turned his attention to Ireland, Griffiths, R. A.. His comments on ‘Lawlessness and (aristocratic) violence’ in Reign of Hen. VI, pp 128-53, 562–609Google Scholar, provide an interpretative context for his harsh views on Ireland. See also Bellamy, Crime & public order in Eng., pp 199–202; idem, Bastard feudalism and the law (London, 1989); Kaeuper, R. W., ‘Law and order in fourteenth-century England: the evidence of special commissions of oyer and terminer’ in Speculum, liv (1979), pp 734-84CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Maddicott, J. R., ‘Edward I and the lessons of baronial reform: local government, 1258–80’ in Coss, P. R. and Lloyd, S. D. (eds), Thirteenth-century England I (Woodbridge, 1986), pp 1–30Google Scholar; Coss, ‘Bastard feudalism revised’; idem in Carpenter, Coss & Crouch, ‘Debate: Bastard feudalism revised’.

110 Carpenter, ‘Political & constitutional history’, p. 191. See also eadem, Wars of the Roses, pp 4–26, where she talks of the confusion caused by ‘rejecting McFarlane’s ideas ... in the name of McFarlane’ (p. 23).

111 Harriss, G. L., ‘Political society and the growth of government in late medieval England’ in Past & Present, no. 138 (1993), p. 32Google Scholar.

112 Given-Wilson, Chris, The English nobility in the late middle ages: the fourteenth- century political community (London, 1987), p. 160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

113 Keen, Maurice, England in the later middle ages (2nd ed., London, 2003), p. 239Google Scholar. The point is elaborated in Gillingham, J. B., ‘Crisis or continuity? The structure of royal authority in England, 1369–1422’ in Schneider, Reinhard (ed.), Das Spätmittelalterliche Königtum im Europäischen Vergleich (Sigmaringen, 1987), pp 78–80Google Scholar. For other critiques of the ‘centralist’ position and its emphasis on local disorder see Clanchy, ‘Law, government, & society’, pp 73–8; Powell, Kingship, law & society, pp 19–20, 87–91; Hicks, Ric. III & his rivals, pp 16–7; Davies, ‘Med. state’, pp 289–90; Musson, Public order & law enforcement, pp 226–34; Gorski, Richard, The fourteenth-century sheriff: English local administration in the late middle ages (Woodbridge, 2003), pp 160-61Google Scholar; Musson, Anthony and Ormrod, W. M., The evolution of English justice: law, politics and society in the fourteenth century (London, 1999), pp 68–74CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

114 The phrase is used in Brown, J. M., review of Ranald Nicholson, Scotland: the later middle ages in E.H.R., xcii (1977), p. 599Google Scholar.

115 Like their Irish counterparts, the Scottish nobles were previously ‘very much neglected by other historians’ and were the ‘victims of a strong prejudice in favour of the Crown’ (Stringer, K. J. (ed.), Essays on the nobility of medieval Scotland (Edinburgh, 1985), p. xiiiGoogle Scholar; the second quotation is taken by Stringer from McFarlane, Nobility of later med. Eng., p. 3). For important attempts to reverse that trend see Brown, J. M., ‘The exercise of power’ in eadem, (ed.), Scottish society in the fifteenth century (London, 1977), pp 33–65Google Scholar; Jenny Wormald [née Brown], ‘Taming the magnates?’ in Stringer (ed.), op. cit., pp 270–80; eadem, Lords & men in Scot.; Grant, Alexander, ‘Earls and earldoms in late medieval Scotland (c. 1310–1460)’ in Bossy, John and Jupp, Peter (eds), Essays presented to Michael Roberts ... (Belfast, 1976), pp 24–40Google Scholar; idem, ‘The development of the Scottish peerage’ in Scot. Hist. Rev., lvii (1978), pp 1–27; idem, ‘Crown and nobility in late medieval Britain’ in R. A. Mason (ed.), Scotland and England, 1286–1815 (Edinburgh, 1987), pp 34–59.

116 Brown, Michael, ‘Scotland tamed? Kings and magnates in late medieval Scotland: a review of recent work’ in Innes Review, xlv (1994), pp 120–46CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Boardman, Steve and Lynch, Michael, ‘The state of late medieval and early modern Scottish history’ in Ditchburn, David and Brotherstone, Terry (eds), Freedom and authority: Scotland c. 1050- c. 1650 ... (East Linton, 2000), pp 44–59Google Scholar.

117 Frame, Eng. lordship, pp 325–6. For this theme in England see Ormrod, Mark, ‘Edward III and the recovery of royal authority in England, 1340–60’ in History, lxxii (1987), pp 4–19Google Scholar; idem, The reign of Edward III: crown and political society in England, 1327–1377 (New Haven, 1990), pp 56–60, 102–5, 197–203; Bothwell, James, ‘Edward III and the “new nobility”: largesse and limitation in fourteenth-century England’ in E.H.R., cxii (1997), pp 1111-40CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem, Edward III and the English peerage: royal patronage, social mobility and political control in fourteenth-century England (Woodbridge, 2004), pp 154–60.

118 Note, for example, Richard II’s reprimand to the third earl of Desmond (Johnston, ‘Interim years’, p. 183). For the English context see Dunn, Alastair, The politics of magnate power in England and Wales, 1389–1413 (Oxford, 2003)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

119 Frame, Ire. & Brit., pp 301–17; idem, ‘Commissions of the peace in Ireland, 1302–1461’ in Anal. Hib„ no. 35 (1992), pp 1–13.

120 Ellis, S. G., ‘The destruction of the liberties: some further evidence’ in I.H.R. Bull., liv (1981), pp 150-61Google Scholar.

121 The phrase is that of Otway-Ruthven in reference to the creations of the early fourteenth century (Med. Ire., p. 174).

122 Proc. King’s council, Ire., 1392–3, pp 265–6; Curtis & McDowell (eds), Ir. hist, docs, p. 69.

123 Cal. pat. rolls, 1494–1509, p. 26; Ormond deeds, 1413–1509, no. 348.

124 Ormond deeds, 1350–1413, no. 297 (vi-vii). See Empey, C. A., ‘The Butler lordship’ in Butler Soc. Jn., iii (1970-71), p. 180Google Scholar; idem, ‘County Kilkenny in the Anglo-Norman period’ in William Nolan and Kevin Whelan (eds), Kilkenny: history and society (Dublin, 1990), pp 87–9.

125 Westminster Chron., pp 140–41. The third earl of Ormond’s involvement in this event seems to have gone unremarked by historians of Ireland, although it is noted by Gillespie, J. L., ‘Richard II’s knights: chivalry and patronage’ in Jn. Med. Hist., xiii (1987), pp 148-50Google Scholar; idem, ‘Richard II: chivalry and kingship’ in idem (ed.), The age of Richard II (Stroud, 1997), pp 126–7.

126 Stat. Ire., 1–12 Edw. TV, pp 464–7; Cosgrove, ‘Execution of the earl of Desmond, 1468’, pp 11–27. In terms of his mishandling of colonial sensibilities, Tiptoft bears comparison to the fourteenth-century chief governor, Sir Ralph Ufford: see Frame, Robin, ‘The justiciarship of Ralph Ufford: warfare and politics in fourteenth-century Ireland’ in Studia Hib., xiii (1973), pp 7–47Google Scholar.

127 Gairdner, James (ed.), Letters and papers illustrative of the reigns of Richard 111 and Henry VII (2 vols, London, 1861-3), i, 68Google Scholar.

128 Stat. Ire., John-Hen. V, pp 202–3, 376–9, 446–9. See Frame, Ire. & Brit., pp 235–6.

129 Conway, Hen. VII, Scot. & Ire., pp 121–2, 124; Stat. Ire., Hen. VII & VIII, pp 92–3; Stat. Ire., i, 46, 49.

130 Fourteenth century studies by Clarke, M. V., ed. Sutherland, L. S. and McKisack, May (Oxford, 1937), p. 186Google Scholar. Rute or route was a French or Anglo-Norman word derived from the Latin rupta (broken), referring to a company or division. It soon came to have a negative connotation, and in the English statutes of the period it refers to armed confederacies or bands of criminals. During the Hundred Years War companies of freelance soldiers, known as routiers, were a source of considerable disorder. The Irish word rúta was borrowed from the francophone invaders of Ireland.

131 SirAyloffe, Joseph, Calendar of the ancient charters ... To which are added memoranda concerning the affairs of Ireland, extracted from the Tower records (London, 1772), pp 453–5Google Scholar.

132 Misc. Ir. Annals, pp 174–5. See also the ‘crisis of lordship’ in the aftermath of the deaths of the White Earl of Ormond in 1452 and John Talbot, earl of Shrewsbury and Waterford, in 1453 (Ellis, Ire. in age of Tudors, pp 56–8). For the phrase ‘crisis of lordship’ see Davies, ‘Lordship or colony?’, p. 149.

133 Empey & Simms, Ordinances of the White Earl’, p. 164; Otway-Ruthven, Med. Ire., p. 355. Empey transcribes the relevant record in ‘The Butler lordship in Ireland, 1185–1515’ (Ph.D. thesis, Trinity College Dublin, 1970), app. V, no. 2, p. xxxii. On the importance of land as a cause of dispute in England see Carpenter, ‘Law, justice & landowners’, pp 205–37; Bellamy, Bastard feudalism, pp 8, 34–56.

134 Ormond deeds, 1350–1413, no. 8; ibid., 1413-1509, no. 348; Cal. close rolls, 1349–54, p. 319; ibid., 1354-60, pp 7–8; Cal. pat. rolls, 1354–8, p. 328.

135 See Hicks, Ric. III & his rivals, pp 48–54.

136 The accusation is found in Stat. Ire., Hen. VI, p. 51; Frac, king’s council, Ire., 1392–3, pp 274, 281; Proc. privy council, 1436–43, p. 318. Ormond is reported to have offered to defend himself ‘per manum suam propriam’ (Proc. king’s council, Ire., 1392–3, app. VI, p. 284).

137 See, for example, Stat. Ire., John-Hen. V, pp 562–85; Griffith, ‘Talbot-Ormond struggle’, apps I–III, pp 392–7; Rot. pat. Hib., pp 247–8; Proc. privy council, 1410–22, pp 43–52; ibid., 1436-43, pp 317–34; Stat. Ire., Hen. VI, pp 10–25, 50–53; Proc. king’s council, Ire., 1392–3, pp 273–313; Ormond deeds, 1413–1509, no. 159; Stat. Ire., 1–12 Edw. IV, p. 181; Gairdner (ed.), Letters & papers, i, 377–9; and complaints cited in Ellis, Reform & revival, pp 33–4.

138 See, e.g., Clarke, Fourteenth century studies, p. 206; Proc. king’s council, Ire., 1392–3, pp 275–6, 285–6; Proc. privy council, 1436–43, p. 328.

139 Otway-Ruthven, Med. Ire., pp 313, 315; Lydon, Lordship, pp 164–5, 167.

140 In 1379 James, second earl of Ormond, who had held office since 1376, travelled to court to demand his own dismissal and he later showed reluctance in accepting the burden again (Cal. pat. rolls, 1377–81, p. 385; Richardson & Sayles, Pari. & councils med. Ire., i, 117–18). His son, the third earl, likewise expressed dismay at being appointed justiciar in 1392 (Proc. king’s council, Ire., 1392–3, pp xvi-xvii).

141 During the chief governorship of James, third earl of Ormond, 1392–4, an array of Butler supporters was treated favourably (Proc. king’s council, Ire., 1392–3, nos 4, 6, 13, 15, 18–20, 22–3, 28–9, 32–4, 37, 47, 63, 66, 70, 81, 100, 123, 127, 136, 146, 176, 180, 183, 185, 188, 199, 205).

142 Crooks, ‘“Hobbes”, “dogs” & politics’.

143 Brady, Chief governors, p. 176; the whole of ch. 5 is essential reading.

144 Cal. close rolls, 1385–9, p. 49; Rymer, Foedera (The Hague, 1739–45 ed.), iii, 196. The most detailed collection of such grievances is in Clarke, Fourteenth century studies, pp 184–241.

145 Stat. Ire., John-Hen. V, pp 413–14; Stat. of realm, i, 360–61; see also Cal. close rolls, 1349–54, p. 462; ibid., 1392-6, pp 227–8; Sayles (ed.), Docs on affairs of Ire., no. 267; Rot. pat. Hib., pp 247–8.

146 See Sayles (ed.), Docs on affairs of Ire., no. 243; Johnston, Dorothy, ‘Chief governors and treasurers in the reign of Richard II’ in Barry, T. B., Frame, Robin and Simms, Katharine (eds), Colony and frontier in medieval Ireland: essays presented to J. F. Lydon (London, 1995), p. 104Google Scholar.

147 Stat. Ire., John-Hen. V, pp 344–5, 360–61, 416; Stat. of realm, i, 362. Pronay, Nicholas and Taylor, John (eds), Parliamentary texts of the later middle ages (Oxford, 1980), pp 115–52Google Scholar; Otway-Ruthven, A. J. (ed.), ‘The background to the arrest of Sir Christopher Preston in 1418’ in Anal. Hib., no. 29 (1980), pp 73–94Google Scholar.

148 Steele, Robert (ed.), Three prose versions of the Secreta secretorum (London, 1898), pp 119–248Google Scholar.

149 Kerby-Fulton, Kathryn and Justice, Steven, ‘Langlandian reading circles and the civil service in London and Dublin, 1380–1427’ in New Medieval Literatures, i (1997), pp 59–83Google Scholar.

150 Steele (ed.), Three prose versions of the Secreta secretorum, p. 121.

151 The stock charge of ‘accroaching royal power’ is a case in point. Compare the Appellants’ charges against Robert de Vere, duke of Ireland, in 1388 with the Talbot party’s complaints against their rivals in 1428: Rot. parl., iii, 236; Westminster Chron., pp 240–43; Knighton’s Chronicle, 1337–96, ed. Martin, G. H. (Oxford, 1995), pp 258–63Google Scholar; Rot. pat. Hib., p. 248.

152 Griffiths, Reign of Hen. VI, pp 416–17.

153 Gillingham, Wars of the Roses, p. 14; see also Hicks, Michael, ‘Bastard feudalism, overmighty subjects and idols of the multitude during the Wars of the Roses’ in History, lxxxv (2000), pp 386–403CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

154 See Brown, ‘Scotland tamed?’, p. 127; Grant, ‘Crown and nobility’, pp 34–59.

155 See, for example, Chartul. St Mary’s, Dublin, ii, 396–7; Jacobi Grace, Kilkenniensis, Annales Hiberniae, ed. Richard Butler (Dublin, 1842), pp 154–5.

156 Roberts, Simon, ‘The study of dispute; anthropological perspectives’ in Bossy, (ed.), Disputes & settlements, p. 4Google Scholar.

157 Nicholls, Gaelic & gaelicised Ire. (2nd ed.), pp 57–9.

158 See esp. Powell, Edward, ‘Arbitration and the law in England in the late middle ages’ in R. Hist. Soc. Trans., 5th ser., xxxiii (1983), pp 49–67CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Rosenthal, J. T., ‘Feuds and private peace-making: a fifteenth-century example’ in Nottingham Medieval Studies, xiv (1969), pp 84–90Google Scholar; Rawcliffe, Carole, ‘The great lord as peacekeeper: arbitration by English noblemen and their councils in the later middle ages’ in Guy, J. A. and Beale, H. G. (eds), Law and social change in British history ... (London, 1984), pp 34–54Google Scholar; eadem, , ‘Parliament and the settlement of disputes by arbitration in the later middle ages’ in Parliamentary History, ix (1990), pp 316-42Google Scholar; Rowney, Ian, ‘Arbitration in gentry disputes of the later middle ages’ in History, lxvii (1982), pp 367-76CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

159 Ormond deeds, 1350–1413, no. 34; Matthew, ‘Governing of Lancastrian Ire.’, pp 584–7.

160 Rot. pat. Hib., pp 108, 122.

161 Davies, Lordship & society, pp 245–6.

162 Ormond deeds, 1350–1413, no. 133.

163 Gairdner (ed.), Letters & papers, i, 382. The letter may not have been entirely ingenuous: for its context see Ellis, Ire. in age of Tudors, p. 87.

164 Nicholls, ‘FitzMaurices of Kerry’, p. 42.

165 See R. R. Davies’s comment that it ‘simply will not do to dismiss the power of the Pope as depending on moral authority and influence. After all, the threat of the hereafter is potentially the most potent form of coercive control!’ (‘Medieval state’, p. 291).

166 See, for example, Ormond deeds, 1350–1413, nos 34, 61, 265; ibid., 1413-1509, nos 51, 88, 316, 319; Nicholls, ‘FitzMaurices of Kerry’, pp 38–42; MacCotter & Nicholls (eds), Pipe roll of Cloyne, pp 134–7; Conway, Hen. VII, Scot. & Ire., pp 226–9.

167 A point stressed by Myers, M. D., ‘The failure of conflict resolution and the limits of arbitration in King’s Lynn, 1405–1416’ in Biggs, Douglas, Michalove, S. D. and Reeves, A. Compton (eds), Traditions and transformations in medieval England (Leiden, 2002), pp 81–107Google Scholar.

168 The issue is explored in a recent study by McCormack, Anthony, ‘Sleeping with the enemy: intermarriage between the Butlers of Ormond and the Fitzgeralds of Desmond’ in Butler Soc. Jn., iv (2003), pp 466-77Google Scholar.

169 Cal. papal registers, 1447–55, p. 359.

170 Ormond deeds, 1413–1509, no. 101; Cal. papal registers, 1427–47, pp 442–3; Red Bk Kildare, no. 158.

171 The date of the wedding is uncertain. It was certainly before 8 June 1445, and Richardson and Sayles suggest that it may have been taken place by 21 June 1444 (Ir. parl. in middle ages, p. 202).

172 Ormond deeds, 1413–1509, no. 88.

173 ‘The annals of Ireland, from the year 1443–1468, translated from the Irish by Dudley Firbisse ... for Sir James Ware, in ... 1666’, ed. O’Donovan, John in Miscellany of the Irish Archaeological Society (Dublin, 1846), p. 205Google Scholar. For this explanation of the Desmond raid see Matthew, ‘Governing of Lancastrian Ire.’, pp 361–2.

174 The classic article is Max Gluckman, ‘The peace in the feud’ in Past & Present, no. 8 (1955), pp 1–14.

175 J. M. Wallace-Hadrill was one of the first historians to apply these ideas: see ‘The bloodfeud of the Franks’ in idem, The long-haired kings (Toronto, 1982), pp 121–47. Since this numerous historians have undertaken studies of feuds and dispute settlement.

176 Gluckman, ‘Peace in the feud’, p. 2.

177 Cal. close rolls, 1354–60, p. 576; Cal. pat. rolls, 1358–61, p. 246; Rymer, Foedera (The Hague, 1739–45 ed.), iii, 183. For an earlier, ultimately abortive, attempt to bring the two families together in matrimony see Cal. pat. rolls, 1354–8, p. 412.

178 The four sons are named in an entail of 2 Aug. 1402 (Ormond deeds, 1350–1413, no. 368). In 1399 Ormond attempted to obtain a papal dispensation to marry Katherine (ibid., no. 344). The eldest of these children had been born c. 1384, before Ormond’s marriage to Welles, Anne (Butler, T. B., ‘The seneschals of Tipperary’ in Ir. Geneal., ii (1943-55), p. 368Google Scholar; Ormond deeds, 1350–1413, no. 387 (i)).

179 A.F.M., iv, 724–5; Ann. Conn., pp 364–5; Ann. Clon., p. 315. For the third earl of Desmond’s lament on the death of Eleanor Butler see Niocaill, Gearóid Mac (ed.), ‘Duanaire Ghearóid Iarla’ in Studia Hib., iii (1963), pp 40–41Google Scholar.

180 Proc. king’s council, Ire., 1392–3, no. 122. For other grants to the Desmond Geraldines see ibid., nos 109, 113, 133.

181 Gluckman, ‘Peace in the feud’, p. 10.

182 Rot. pat. Hib., pp 121, 122, 137.

183 Nicholls, K. W. (ed.), ‘Late medieval Irish annals: two fragments’ in Peritia, ii (1983), p. 90Google Scholar.

184 Ibid., pp 90–92; A.F.M., iv, 760–61, 766–7; A.U., iii, 42–3; Ann. Clon., p. 320. Nicholls proves that the date of his drowning was 11 October 1399 (‘Late medieval Ir. annals’, pp 88–9).

185 Bryan conjectures that the episode took place between 1 December 1491 and 11 July 1492 (Great Earl of Kildare, pp 157–9). He disputes Conway’s chronology in Hen. VII, Scot, and Ire., p. 55.

186 Richard Stanihurst in Holinshed’s Irish chronicle, p. 323 (emphasis added); Bryan, Great Earl of Kildare, p. 161. Bryan misprints the year of Sir James of Ormond’s death as 1479 instead of 1497.

I would like to thank Dr Seán Duffy and Professor Robin Frame for their invaluable comments on earlier drafts of this article.