Access by Ethnic Groups to the English Royal Courts in Ireland, 1252-1318
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Justice for all? Access by ethnic groups to the English royal courts in Ireland, 1252-1318 S. G. Hewer A thesis submitted for the degree of PhD University of Dublin 2018 I declare that this thesis has not been submitted as an exercise for a degree at this or any other university and it is entirely my own work. I agree to deposit this thesis in the University’s open access institutional repository or allow the library to do so on my behalf, subject to Irish Copyright Legislation and Trinity College Library conditions of use and acknowledgement. _____________________________ Stephen G. Hewer i S. G. Hewer Justice for all? Access by ethnic groups to the English royal courts in Ireland, 1252-1318 Summary The notion that all Gaelic people were immediately and ipso facto denied access to the royal courts in Ireland, upon the advent of the English in c.1169, has become so established in the national consciousness of Ireland that it is no longer questioned. This thesis questions this narrative of absolute ethnic discrimination in thirteenth- and early fourteenth-century English Ireland on the basis of a thorough re-examination of the Irish plea rolls. These records exist primarily in the form of nineteenth-century transcripts, the originals having been destroyed in the explosion in 1922. A forensic study of these records reveals a great deal of variation in how members of various ethnic groups who came before the royal courts in Ireland were treated. Specifically, the thesis demonstrates the existence of a large, and hitherto scarcely noticed, population of Gaels with regular and unimpeded access to English law, identifiable as Gaelic either through explicit ethnic labelling in the records or implicitly through their naming practices. This represents a primary contribution of the research. To achieve a fuller understanding of the legal status of Gaels within English Ireland, the thesis compares their treatment to that of the English of Ireland and it also offers an in- depth examination of other ‘Irish Sea Region’ ethnicities. While the Englishmen are only included for reasons of comparison, the legal treatment of women, Ost-people, Welsh, Manx, Islanders, and Scots reveals that English Ireland was not a simple dichotomy between the English and the unfree. Having established the legal status of these various groups in civil proceedings, the thesis proceeds to examine their treatment in criminal cases. The rules of law allowed for different treatment of peoples in criminal trials and civil proceedings. This was not limited to the fact that defendants could be hanged, but also it allowed seemingly-unfree people (and people of ‘liminal’ status) to enter court and indictments prosecuted crimes against the unfree. The thesis also offers an analysis of Gaelic (and other) clerics. Religious men and women are treated separately because the royal courts did likewise. Prelates, especially, received extraordinary privileges in civil and criminal cases. The English administration in Ireland permitted certain religious men to exact harsher labour services from their tenants (when compared to secular lords). The courts also acquiesced to prelates manipulating the legal system to disseise free Gaels. These last two factors are important for contextualising the actions of certain Gaelic prelates, which have been framed as benevolent and altruistic. The primary results of the thesis are that Gaelic men and women were free members of English Ireland, the society was cosmopolitan, the law was a system of remediation and not codified, and that despite increasing hostilities the people of English Ireland were never a dichotomy. Complexity defined the land. ii Acknowledgements I have many people to thank for their contributions to this piece of work. Bryan Mann encouraged me to pursue a postgraduate career. Brendan Smith introduced me to medieval Ireland, and then was my research supervisor at the University of Bristol. Over the years at Trinity I have received assistance from countless people. Eoin Mac Cárthaigh and Damian McManus gave me advice on Gaelic naming practices. Katharine Simms, who is a fountain of knowledge, gave me wonderful advice and awarded me with the Gaelic Clans and Chiefs prize in 2015. I must give a big thanks to the Council of Irish Chiefs and Clans of Ireland for the prize and History Ireland for publishing my essay. Arcadia University, Dublin, gave me a part-time job which worked around my schedule. Also, I need to thank the Irish Research Council for funding my final year without which I would not have been able to finish the thesis. The PhDs and postdocs in the Medieval History Research Centre have made the past four years much easier. The discussions on medieval and present topics and gatherings at Lincoln’s Inn provided refuge from the isolation of archival work. Some of the most important gatherings included Brian Coleman, Stuart Gorman, John Tighe, Brendan ‘Two Coats’ Meighan, and maybe Eoghan Keane. Extra thanks to Sparky Booker, Caoimhe Whelan, Lynn Kilgallon, and Niall Ó Súilleabháin for reading portions of my work and giving comments, and to Lynn and Niall for organising the Grand Narratives workshop and putting my name on it. I owe a great deal to my supervisors, Peter Crooks and David Ditchburn, for their patience and keeping me focused on the task at hand. To Paul Brand, I owe many thanks for all of his advice. His knowledge of thirteenth-century jurisprudence is astonishing. To Seán Duffy for his encouraging words and volunteering numerous hours of his time to help an eachtrannach struggling with Gaeilge. To my friends and family, who came and visited me, a big thanks; to my family who left me alone, a bigger thanks. As most people do, I owe almost everything to my parents, Gary, Sue, and Deborah. Most of all, I must thank Sarah J. Hoover. iii Table of contents Declaration i Summary ii Acknowledgements iii Table of contents iv Abbreviations & conventions vii Introduction: Ethnicity and English law in medieval Ireland 1 Previous works 3 Terminology 9 Grants of access 16 Sources 17 Thesis structure 20 Chapter I: Gaelic men in civil cases 23 Unfreedom and betaghs 24 Free Gaelic men in English Ireland 37 Table 1 40 Free Gaels in court 43 Jurors 55 Table 2 56 Pledges, attachers, mainpernors 58 Warrantying 60 Attorneys, bailiffs, and others 64 Table 3 67 Legal disseisins and land transfers 73 Conclusion 90 iv Chapter II: The role of ethnicity in the legal status of women 91 Naming practices 93 Single women 94 Being underage 106 Difficulties for single women 109 Married women 113 An Ostwoman married to Englishmen 119 Gaelic women married to Englishmen 121 Englishwomen married to Gaelic men 127 Dowers 131 Conclusion 139 Chapter III: Irish Sea Region Ethnicities 141 Ost-people 145 Welsh 160 Manx, Islanders, and Scots 168 Conclusion 177 Chapter IV: The effects of ethnicity during criminal cases 179 Killing a Hibernicus/-a 188 Hibernici of the king 195 Killing an English or Welsh person 197 Status of the slayer 203 Other Crimes 211 Rape/seizure 211 Wounding 215 Theft and house-breaking 218 Imprisonment 224 Lords of unfree charged 227 v Other signs of socio-legal status from criminal cases 228 Innocent Gaels charged out of malice 232 Gaelic pledges 233 Unfree or unaccepted? 235 Table 4 236 Harsher treatment of Gaels? 237 Sequela & nativi 241 Pardons & ‘pro visneto relaxando’ 243 Conclusion 246 Chapter V: The role of ethnicity in the status of clerics 247 Criminal matters 262 Clerics’ relationship with Gaelic people 267 Clerics against Gaels 272 Conclusion 277 Conclusion: Beyond exclusion: ethnic interactions and the social complexity of English Ireland 278 Appendices 288 Bibliography 311 vi Abbreviations & conventions AC Annála Connacht: the annals of Connacht, ed. A. M. Freeman (Dublin, 1944) Admin. of Ireland H. G. Richardson and G. O. Sayles, The administration of Ireland, 1172-1377 (Dublin, 1963) adscripticius/-a glebae ‘tied to the dirt’; a legal status under Roman law for someone who could not leave a certain area of land without permission of his/her lord. Meaning not clear under thirteenth-century English law AFM Annala rioghachta Eireann: annals of the kingdom of Ireland from the earliest period to the year 1616 by the Four Masters, ed. John O’Donovan (3rd ed., 7 vols, Dublin, 1990) AH Analecta Hibernica ALC The Annals of Loch Cé: a chronicle of Irish affairs, 1014-1590, ed. W. M. Hennessy (repr., 2 vols, Dublin, 1939) amerce[v]/amercement[n] fine by the court; lit. ‘mercy from the king to be allowed to pay a fine’ Ann. Clon. The Annals of Clonmacnoise: being annals of Ireland from the earliest period to a.d. 1408: translated into English a.d. 1627 by Conell Mageoghagan, ed. Denis Murphy (repr., Dublin, 1993) Ann. Inis. The Annals of Inisfallen, ed. Seán Mac Airt (repr., Dublin, 1988) Ann. Ulster Annála Uladh: annals of Ulster: from the earliest times to the year 1541, eds W. M. Hennessy and Bartholomew MacCarthy (2nd ed., 4 vols, Dublin, 1998) annulled [L. ‘divortiatum est’] sometimes called a ‘divorce’ in the historiography, but the term meant that the marriage was declared null and void appurtenances items of value related to a piece of property assize a particular type of case (e.g. novel disseisin) which was faster to prosecute than other writs; also the name for a the jury in these type of cases; originally a meeting with the king (Henry II of England) to draft legislation attach the viscount (‘sheriff’ q.v.) obtained surety from people to appear at court by pledges; if the attached person did not appear in court on the day assigned, the person and his/her sureties were amerced attorney representative of a person in court, could possibly have legal training bailiff personal assistant to a lord, or anyone’s personal representative in court; actions in court resembled an attorney’s BBL The black book of Limerick, ed.