A Popular History of Ireland : from the Earliest Period to the Emancipation of the Catholics — CompleteMcGee, Thomas D'Arcy
History
A Popular History of Ireland : from the Earliest Period to the Emancipation of the Catholics — Complete
McGee, Thomas D'Arcy
Ireland -- History
Many circumstances concurring to promote plans so long cherished by
Henry, St. Leger summoned a Parliament for the morrow after Trinity
Sunday, being the 13th of the month of June, 1541. The attendance on
the day named was not so full as was expected, so the opening was
deferred till the following Thursday—being the feast of Corpus Christi.
On that festival the Mass of the Holy Ghost was solemnly celebrated in
St. Patrick's Cathedral, in which "two thousand persons" had assembled.
The Lords of Parliament rode in cavalcade to the Church doors, headed
by the Deputy. There were seen side by side in this procession the
Earls of Desmond and Ormond, the Lords Barry, Roche and Bermingham;
thirteen Barons of "the Pale," and a long train of Knights; Donogh
O'Brien, Tanist of Thomond, the O'Reilly, O'Moore and McWilliam;
Charles, son of Art Kavanagh, lord of Leinster, and Fitzpatrick, lord
of Ossory. Never before had so many Milesian chiefs and Norman barons
been seen together, except on the field of battle; never before had
Dublin beheld marshalled in her streets what could by any stretch of
imagination be considered a national representation. For this
singularity, not less than for the business it transacted, the
Parliament of 1541 will be held in lasting remembrance.
In the sanctuary of St. Patrick's, two Archbishops and twelve Bishops
assisted at the solemn mass, and the whole ceremony was highly
imposing. "The like thereof," wrote St. Leger to Henry, "has not been
seen here these many years." On the next day, Friday, the Commons
elected Sir Thomas Cusack speaker, who, in "a right solemn
proposition," opened at the bar of the Lords' House the main business
of the session—the establishment of King Henry's supremacy. To this
address Lord Chancellor Allen—"well and prudentlie answered;" and the
Commons withdrew to their own chamber. The substance of both speeches
was "briefly and prudentlie" declared in the Irish language to the
Gaelic Lords, by the Earl of Ormond, "greatly to their contentation."
Then St. Leger proposed that Henry and his heirs should have the title
of King, and caused the "bill devised for the same to be read." This
bill having been put to the Lords' House, both in Irish and English,
passed its three readings at the same sitting. In the Commons it was
adopted with equal unanimity the next day, when the Lord Deputy most
joyfully gave his consent. Thus on Saturday, June 19th, 1541, the
royalty of Ireland was first formally transferred to an English
dynasty. On that day the triumphant St. Leger was enabled to write his
royal master his congratulations on having added to his dignities
"another imperial crown." On Sunday bonfires were made in honour of the
event, guns fired, and wine on stoop was set in the streets. All
prisoners, except those for capital offences, were liberated; _Te Deum_
was sung in St. Patrick's, and King Henry issued his proclamation, on
receipt of the intelligence, for a general pardon throughout _all_ his
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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