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Gaelic law and the Tudor conquest of Ireland: the social background of the sixteenth-century recensions of the pseudo-historical Prologue to the Senchas már

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2016

Nerys Patterson
Nerys Patterson*
Affiliation:
Department of Celtic Languages and Literatures, Harvard University
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Extract

Contemporary studies of the Tudor conquest of Ireland identify numerous interest-groups whose different political strategies produced a complex course of events. This paper examines the reactions of an influential segment of the Gaelic learned class, the traditional lawyers (brehons), to the threat of conquest. It offers evidence that some important brehon families supported administrative reforms within the Gaelic lordships, in accord with crown demands, and that they used native jural traditions to support legal change.

As participants in the struggles of this period, the brehons have been viewed by scholars as part of the traditional cultural élite, which included poets and historians. Their indistinct appearance in the historical record partly accounts for such treatment. Brehons are scarcely mentioned in the Irish annals, while English sources tend to depict them as ultramontanists, practising ‘secret and hidden rites’, not as administrators with policies. Unlike the bardic poets, the brehons failed to leave behind a body of work that reflected their personal opinions; their literary monument, the corpus of Irish law-tracts, presents formidable barriers to interpretation, even as jural material, let alone as testimony to social history. These difficulties arise from the brehons’ deliberate attempts to preserve an appearance of antiquity and changelessness in the jural tradition. So successful were they in this, that many scholars believe that the later brehon schools copied the old law-tracts solely for their antiquarian interest and that the tracts had little relevance to contemporary affairs.

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Articles
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 27 , Issue 107 , May 1991 , pp. 193 - 215
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 1991

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References

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16 Binchy, ‘The pseudo-historical Prologue’, p. 22.

17 In ‘Dubthach maccu Lugair’, McCone maintains that Harleian 432 represents the original composition of the Prologue, and that it was written in the pre-Viking period. Carey, however, in ‘The two laws in Dubthach’s judgment’, argues in favour of a later date of composition for this text.

18 C.I.H. 341.27-32.

19 See my ‘Brehon law in late medieval Ireland’.

20 Best, R.I. and Bergin, Osborn (eds), Lebor na hUidre (Dublin, 1929), pp 293-5Google Scholar (lines 9732-9820); the text is translated by Plummer, Charles in ‘Irish miscellanies: The conversion of Lóegaire and his death’ in Revue Celtique, vi (1883-5), pp 162-72Google Scholar.

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26 C.I.H. 339.31-2.

27 See Corráin, Donnchadh Ó, ‘Nationality and kingship in pre-Norman Ireland’ in Moody, T.W. (ed.), Nationality and the pursuit of national independence (Historical Studies, xi, Belfast, 1978), pp 29–30 Google Scholar.

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29 Hore & Graves, Southern & eastern counties, pp 186-7.

30 Byrne, M.E., ‘On the punishment of sending adrift’ in Ériu, xi (1932), pp 97–102 Google Scholar

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35 Whitelock, Dorothy, ‘Introduction to Sermo Lupi ad Anglos ’ (London, 1939; revised ed., Exeter, 1976), in History, law and literature in 10th and 11th century England (London, 1981), xiv Google Scholar; ‘Wulfstan Cantor and Anglo-Saxon law’ in ibid., v; ‘Wulfstan and the so-called laws of Edward and Guthrum’ in ibid., ix; Wulfstan and the laws of Cnut’ in ibid., xii, ‘Wulfstan’s authorship of Cnut’s Laws’ in ibid., xiii; Phillpotts, Bertha, Kindred and clan (Cambridge, 1913), pp 239-40Google Scholar. Church influence on the post-classical Irish law-texts on wergeld is considered in my ‘Irish patrilineal kinship: the evidence from the Irish law-texts’ in Bull. Board Celtic Studies, xxxvii (1990).

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37 Watt, John, ‘Ecclesia inter Anglos et inter Hibernicos’ in Lydon, James (ed.), The English in medieval Ireland (Dublin, 1984), p. 49 Google Scholar.

38 Hand, English law in Ireland, pp 174-5. See p. 175, n. 1, for further references.

39 Pollock, Frederick and Maitland, Frederick W., The history of English law, ed. Milsom, S.F.C. (Cambridge, 1968), ii, 448 ffGoogle Scholar.

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43 Hand, English law in Ireland, pp 204, 208-9.

44 Hore & Graves Southern & eastern counties, p. 162. (Dr Steven Ellis informs me that the editors’ date of 1534 should be corrected to the twenty-ninth year of Henry’s reign, i.e. 1537/8.)

45 Nicholls, Gaelic & Gaelicised Ireland, pp 50-57.

46 P.R.O., S.P., Henry VIII, II, pt 3, pp 52-3.

47 See Bradshaw, Irish constitutional revolution; Ellis, Tudor Ireland.

48 Ellis, Tudor Ireland, pp 228-77.

49 Cal. Carew MSS, 1515-74, p. 340

50 Ibid., p. 331.

51 Sir John Perrott, Ordinances proclaimed at Limerick, 1571 (Cal. Carew MSS, 1515-74, pp 409-11).

52 Additional details appear in my ‘The O’Doran legal family and the sixteenth-century recensions of the Pseudo-historical Prologue to the Senchas már’ in Harvard Celt. Coll., Proc., vii (1987), pp 131-49. The MS page on which is found the name of Gilla na naem O’Doran is reproduced on p. 143.

53 Annals of the kingdom of Ireland by the Four Masters, ed. and trans. O’Donovan, John (3 vols, Dublin, 1848), iii, 1710-11Google Scholar.

54 B.M. cat. Ir. MSS, i, 147.

55 Ibid., p. 147; Ancient laws Ire., i, p. xxxii; E.I. Hogan, Onomasticon, pp 346-7, ‘d. labráin’. Inch St Lawrence appears on the O.S. Sheet 18 at R.65.49, about 1½ miles S.W. of Caherconlish.

56 See my ‘The O’Doran legal family’.

57 R.I.A. cat. Ir. MSS, pp 3440-51.

58 Ibid., pp 3441, 3443-4.

59 Ibid., p. 3440. The MacEgan scribe, Saordálach óg, gave his date of writing as 1475, but the O’Doran scribe, Gabrial, signed and dated a colophon on the other side of the same folio (5 b i) to 1575. Gwynn suggests this is the Gabrial who dated his entries in H 3 17 to 1577. Saordálach’s date, which conflicts both with his collaborator’s and that of all the other dates in the codex, is not reliable.

60 C.I.H. 1148.25-34 = C.I.H. 342.9-14; 19-20.

61 MS correspondences are: Egerton 88. f.l8d (C.I.H. 1303.10 ff) = Harl. 432 f.1d (C.I.H. 341.6 ff), H 3 17, col 6 (C.I.H. 1653.9), H3 18,198 (C.I.H. 720.21); Egerton 88 f 19c (C.I.H. 1306.8) = Harl. 432 f.1 (C.I.H. 340.32).

62 B.M. cat. Ir. MSS, i, 111 (10).

63 R.I.A. cat. Ir. MSS, p. 3441.

64 Abbott, T.K. and Gwynn, E.J. (eds), T.C.D. cat. Ir. MSS (Dublin, 1921), 1336, pp 125-39Google Scholar; Supplement, pp 355-8.

65 Ibid., p. 355.

66 Gwynn corrected Abbott’s transcription, which read a leabhar Emainn í Deoráin (i.e., from the book of Edmund O’Doran), to leabhar Emainn í Deoráin (the book of Edmund O’Doran) (T.C.D. cat. Ir. MSS, supplement, 1336, p. 335). Abbott, in any case, believed that the Senchas már in this codex had belonged to Edmund O’Doran (ibid., 1336, p. 125).

67 ‘A Laoigis damh a farradh Saoeirbreathaigh 7 is mór conblicht í Mhorrdha 7 mic Gilla fPatraicc re cheile’ (I am at Leix in the company of Saorbreathach, and great is the conflict between the O Mores and Macgiollaphadraig) (ibid., p. 356).

68 A.F.M., iii, 1706-7.

69 T.C.D. cat. Ir. MSS, Supplement, p. 350.

70 Fiants Ire., Eliz., 1280.

71 Ó Cuív, ‘The Irish language in the early modern period’, p. 519.

72 Kilroury (al. Kilrorye, Killrowry, Kelrowrie), belonging to the Friary of Stradbally, appears in sixteenth-century records ( O’Hanlon, John and O’Leary, Edward, History of the Queen’s County (2 vols, Dublin, 1907), i, 328-31)Google Scholar.

73 Fiants Ire., Eliz., 1102

74 Ibid., 3597.

75 T.C.D. cat. Ir. MSS, 1337, pp 140-58.

76 Ibid., 1337, p.150 (= C.I.H. 1016).

77 C.I.H. 1896.23.

78 C.I.H. 1821.28 ff; 1993.11 ff.

79 Plummer, Charles, ‘On the colophons and marginalia of the Irish scribes’ in Brit. Acad. Proc., xii (1926), p. 18, n. 8Google Scholar.

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81 Bagwell, Tudors, ii, 344.

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83 See Canny, Nicholas, ‘Rowland White’s “The dysorders of the Irisshery”, 1571’ in Studia Hib., xix (1979), pp 151-2Google Scholar.

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87 Nicholls, ‘The Kavanaghs’ (1976), p. 442.

88 Walter Cowley to Lord Deputy St Leger, 15 Mar. 1540/41 (Hore & Graves Southern & eastern counties, pp 81-2).

89 Memorial roll of the Exchequer, 13 & 14 Eliz,, m. 13 (cited in ibid., p. 85).

90 Cowley to Bellingham (enclosed in), 14 Mar. 1549 (P.R.O., Irish correspondence of Edward VI, ii, 25. 1, cited in Hore & Graves, Southern & eastern counties, pp 281-6).

91 See Quinn, D.B. (ed.), ‘Edward Walshe’s “Conjectures” concerning the state of Ireland’ in I.H.S., v, no. 20 (Sept. 1947), pp 309-10Google Scholar.

92 Ibid., p. 318

93 Hore & Graves, Southern & eastern counties, p. 282, n. 2.

94 Fiants Ire., Ed. VI, 547.

95 Fiants Ire., Eliz., 6517.

96 In fiant 6517 the denominations were written as follows: Tobbergal, Clandavie, Ballenemonie, Ballelorlyne, Rahynduff, Dromgowle, and Killconyb. These are identified with modern Tobergal, 4 miles S.E. of Ferns, Clondaw, 3 miles S.W. of Tobergal; Ballynemona, 5 miles S.S.E. of Clondaw, and Ballyorley 1 mile south of Tobergal. The O’Doran estate also included Oulart, south of Clondaw ( Hore, P.H. (ed.), The history of the town and county of Wexford (6 vols, London, 1900-11), iv (1901), pp 147, 465Google Scholar).

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101 Brady, ‘Faction & Desmond rebellion’.

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104 Hore, , Wexford town, v (1904), p. 205 Google Scholar.

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107 lbid., p. 465.

108 Nicholls, ‘The Kavanaghs’ (1976), p. 435.

109 Extents Ir. mon. possessions, p. 71.

110 Both the manors of Kylka and Casteldermot were forfeited lands of the earl of Kildare (ibid., p. 168); the earl of Kildare is indicated as the former lord of these lands by P.R.O., S.P. 65/3, 27 Nov., 32 Hen. VIII. (I owe this reference to Dr Steven Ellis.)

111 Extents Ir. mon. possessions, pp 172, 134.

112 See, e.g., A.F.M., ii, 1376-9; Nicholls, , ‘The Kavanaghs’ in Irish Genealogist, vi, no. 2 (1981), p. 191 Google Scholar.

113 Ainsworth, John (ed.), ‘The corporation book of the Irishtown of Kilkenny, 1537-1628’ in Anal. Hib., no. 28 (1978), pp 5, 15, 36, 42, 44, 45, 54Google Scholar.

114 Ormond deeds, 1509-47 (no. 315.2), pp 260-61.

115 Ormond deeds, 1547-84 (nos 171, 172), pp 189-90.

116 See O’Hanlon, & O’Leary, , Hist. Queen’s Co., i, 216 Google Scholar.

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118 See fiant 140 (1559), which pardons Edmund Butler, Art buoy Kavanagh, David O’Doran (all of ‘Tulle’, i.e. Tullow), and many other Kavanaghs, described as ‘servants of Edmund Butler’.

119 Acts privy council, Ire., 1556-71, anno 1548: ‘the O’Dorans challenge Cloghgrennan’.

120 Hore & Graves, Southern & eastern counties, p. 284, n. 1. See also the petition of ‘those that would have Leix and Offaly to them and their heirs’ to the king’s deputy and council, 1550 (P.R.O., S.P. 61/2, 69, printed by Quinn as appendix to ‘Edward Walshe’s “Conjectures”’, p. 322).

121 Quinn, ‘Edward Walshe’s “Conjectures”’, pp 305-8.

122 Gilpatricke McMoriatogh O’Doran, resident in William Roe O’Dempsey’s land, within ‘O’More’s country’ appears in Hore, H.F. (ed.), ‘The rental book of Gerald Fitz-Gerald, ninth earl of Kildare, begun in 1518’ in R.S.A.I.Jn., vii (1862), p. 124.Google Scholar Gilpatricke McMoriatogh also held twenty cows from Rory O’More against a quarter of the lands of Colt in Leix ( O’Hanlon, and O’Leary, , Hist. Queen’s Co., i, 433 Google Scholar). Maurice O’Doran, a kern in the service of Rory O’Connor, was pardoned in 1550 ( Morrin, James (ed.), Cal. pat. rolls Ire., Hen. VIII-Eliz. (Dublin, 1861), p. 211 Google Scholar).

123 Dunlop, Robert, ‘The plantation of Leix and Offaly’ in English Historical Review, vi (1891), pp 61–96 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

124 Sussex to king and queen, 4 Apr. 1557 (Cal. S.P. Ire., 1509-73, 136 (no. 29)).

125 Dunlop, ‘Plantation of Leix & Offaly’, pp 71-4.

126 Dublin, R.I.A., MS D V 3, 29 May 1559. See Hayes, , MS sources, iii, 609 Google Scholar.

127 Nicholls, Gaelic & Gaelicised Ireland, p. 50.

128 Dublin, N.L.I., D 16471-2, 15 Oct. 1572. See Hayes, , MS sources, iii, 628 Google Scholar.

129 Bagwell, , Tudors, ii, 345 Google Scholar.

130 Fiants Ire., Eliz., 3597.

131 Ibid., 3497.

132 Ibid., 2835.

133 lbid., 3959.

134 lbid., 4559.

135 Bagwell, , Tudors, ii, 311 Google Scholar.

136 Fiants Ire., Eliz., 6110.

137 Bagwell, , Tudors, ii, 311 Google Scholar.

138 Ibid., ii, 336, n. 1.

139 Ibid., ii, 314-18, 334-45; iii, 23-4.

140 The Compossicion Booke of Conought, transcribed by Freeman, A. Martin (Dublin, 1936), p. 29 Google Scholar. See Cunningham, Bernadette, ‘The Composition of Connacht in the lordships of Clanricard and Thomond, 1577-1641’ in I.H.S., xxiv, no. 93 (May 1984), p. 5 Google Scholar.

141 Fiants 5528 (12 Feb. 1591), and 6658 (12 June 1602). See O’Rahilly, ‘Irish poets’, p. 94, no. 22.

142 Bradshaw, ‘Native reaction to the westward enterprise’, pp 72-3.

143 I wish to thank Professor John V. Kelleher, Dr Steven Ellis, Professor Proinsias Mac Cana, Dr John Carey and Dr William Manon, for many valuable comments on this paper. Whatever errors remain are, of course, my responsibility.