Ireland under the Tudors, with a Succinct Account of the Earlier History. Vol. 1 (of 3)Bagwell, Richard
History
Ireland under the Tudors, with a Succinct Account of the Earlier History. Vol. 1 (of 3)
Bagwell, Richard
Ireland -- History -- 16th century
Accepting 1295 as the date at which English Parliamentary representation
settled down into something like its modern shape, we find that the great
Plantagenet was not unmindful of Ireland. In that same year the
justiciary Wogan issued writs to the prelates and nobles, and also to the
sheriffs of Dublin, Louth, Kildare, Waterford, Tipperary, Cork, Limerick,
Kerry, Connaught, and Roscommon, and to the seneschals of the liberties
of Meath, Wexford, Carlow, Kilkenny, and Ulster. The sheriffs and
seneschals were ordered to proceed to the election of two good and
discreet knights from each county or liberty, who were to have full power
to act for their districts. It does not appear that cities and boroughs
were represented on this occasion; but in 1300, Wogan being still
justiciary, writs were directed to counties for the election of three or
four members, and to cities and boroughs for the election of two or
three. The King's principal object was to get money for his Scotch war;
and, with this view, Wogan visited Drogheda and other places and extorted
benevolence before the Parliament met. A certain supremacy was not denied
to the English Parliament, for in 1290 a vast number of petitions were
made to the King in Parliament at Westminster. Among the petitioners was
the Viceroy, John Sandford, Archbishop of Dublin, who begged the King to
consider the state of Ireland, of which he had already advised him
through Geoffrey de Joinville, a former Viceroy, who was sitting in
Parliament with others of the King's Council in Ireland. Edward I.
answered that he was very busy, but that he had the matter much at heart,
and that he would attend to it as soon as he could.[40]
[Sidenote: Parliament of 1295.]
Of the Parliament of 1295 a particular record has fortunately been
preserved. Each sheriff was ordered to make his election in the full
county court, and each seneschal in the full court of the liberty, and
they were to attend Parliament in their proper persons--to verify the
returns no doubt. The personal attendance of the sheriffs was required in
England until 1406. The magnates who were summoned to Wogan's Parliament
behaved as we might expect to find them behave. The Bishops of the South
and East came. The Archbishop of Armagh and his suffragans sent proctors
with excuses for non-attendance. The Archbishop of Tuam and his
suffragans neither came nor apologised. The absence of Hugo de Lacy, one
of those elected by the county of Limerick, is particularly noted, whence
we may infer that the other shires and liberties were duly represented.
Richard, Earl of Ulster, was present. This Parliament principally
occupied itself with making regulations as to the treatment of the Irish,
and in devising means for checking their inroads upon the colonised
districts. The descendants of the first conquerors were already beginning
to adopt Celtic customs.[41]
[Sidenote: Parliaments of Edward II. and Edward III.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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