The entrance of the viceregal pair into Dublin in July, 1345, foreshadowed the kingly state they maintained throughout their brief reign. They resided in the Priory of the Knights Hospitallers of Kilmainham, and Maud Plantagenet, Countess of Ulster, put into practice the lessons she had learnt at the English court. She exacted homage from her friends, maintained ladies-in-waiting, held courts of her own, and, in fact, was Queen of Ireland. Letters were sent to Edward describing the conduct of his ambitious representatives, and the king's jealousy and fears were aroused. Action on his part, however, was forestalled by the death of D'Ufford, who expired from a malignant disease on Palm Sunday, 1346. Clergy and laity {33} combined to celebrate the tyrant's death, and thanksgiving services were held throughout the English colony. D'Ufford and his wife occupied the viceroyalty for less than twelve months, but in that brief space of time they committed many acts of oppression, torturing, robbing, despoiling, and executing enemies and even friends to gratify a lust for gain and exhibit to the world their vanity of power. Most of D'Ufford's tyrannies were ascribed by the populace to the evil counsels of his wife, and when he was no more they sought out the widow with the intention of laying violent hands upon her. Tyrants have no friends when they fall from power, and Maud Plantagenet suffered the usual indignities of a changeable fate, though she managed to escape from Ireland and carry her husband's body to England. She passed the remainder of her life in retirement. Since his dismissal Sir John Moriz had laboured to obtain his restoration, and he succeeded in this three days before D'Ufford's death. Meanwhile the council in Ireland had elected Roger, son of Sir Jean d'Arcy, who, however, gave way to Moriz when the latter arrived. [Sidenote: The profits of the post]