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Norman Ireland in 1212

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2016

H. G. Richardson
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Extract

The publication of the Irish pipe roll of the fourteenth year of King John calls for more than the brief notice that would normally be given to a stray historical document of similar length published unobtrusively as a supplement to an archaeological journal, for this slender volume is the most important single contribution to the history of Norman Ireland that has come to light for many a long day, and one that has been worth the great labour and care that the editors have spent upon it. Our first thought is to compare this Irish roll with the English and Norman pipe rolls of the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries, without which our knowledge of the history of England and Normandy would be sadly defective.

Type
Research Article
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 3 , Issue 10 , September 1942 , pp. 144 - 155
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 1942

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References

1 ‘ The Irish pipe roll of 14 John, 1211–1212’, edited by Oliver Davies and David B. Quinn, in U.J.A., ser. 3, vol. iv, supplement, July 1941. References to it in the footnotes following are abbreviated to ‘ P.R. ’ with the page number.

2 P.R., p. 75.

3 Rep. D.K., P.R.I., xxxv. 29–50. There was also a membrane from a duplicate, presumably the chancellor's, roll of 45 Henry III.

Orpen, Normans, i. 16 ; ii. 239n. Wood, in Proc. R.I.A., xxxvi, sect, c, p. 219. Both, infer that Gray did not assume office until the winter of 1208–9. It seems more probable that the interval between Meiler's supersession and Gray's assumption of office, if there were one, was very short. Gray is a most constant witness to the king's charters in England: he appears in every month of 1208 from January to July, and then disappears (Rot. chart., pp. 174–183), the last occasion on which he witnesses being July 20 (p. 180). The inference is obvious and is supported, so far as it goes, by the evidence of the patent roll: he disappears after 17 July 1208 (Rot. Hit. pat., p. 85).

2 P.R., pp. 12, 14, 16, 20, 22, 24, 26, 42, 60, 62, 68, 70.

3 P.R., p. 48. The statement above involves the inference that, since the amount was put in charge at Michaelmas 1209 (in rotulo xi), the imprest must have been made at least a little time earlier. Now we can hardly suppose that, even if John de Gray had proceeded with the utmost expedition, he could have settled his affairs in England and have made the journey to Ireland before September 1208.

1 P.R., p. 66.

2 Close rolls, 1231–4, pp. 112–13. The actual grant to Ralph Neville, bishop of Chichester, is dated 4 May 1233 (Cal. chart, rolls, 1226–57, p. 178).

3 The first mention of him as treasurer of Ireland is in April 1217, but it is dear that he had had the title already for some little time (Rot. litt. claus., 1204–24, p. 305 b). When, however, he is being sent back to Ireland in July 1216 it is ‘ ut sit in officio suo ad scaccarium nostrum Hibernie sicut prius esse consuevit’, a phrase implying that he was not then in name treasurer (ibid., p. 279). A writ of 6 July 1215, addressed to the treasurer and chamberlain of the Dublin exchequer, probably does not refer to St. John, who may have been in England, and is not convincing evidence that the title of treasurer was formally recognised (ibid., p. 219 b). St. John's office on his first visit had been ‘ ad curam capiendam . de scaccario nostro Hybernie ’ (ibid., p. 132 b). It has been suggested that Walter Mauclerc, who went at the same time, was intended to be treasurer and that St. John was to be chamberlain (P.R., p. 3): but Mauclerc was back in England before the end of 1213, and then and in 1214 was being employed on confidential missions, an indication of his task in Ireland (Rot. litt. pat., p. 106 b; Rot. litt. claus, 1204–24, pp. 170 b, 206, 209). That the justiciar was directly in charge of the exchequer before St. John's first appointment is suggested by writs addressed to him in 1200-3, which are in such terms as we should expect to be sent to the treasurer, if there had been one (Rot. liberate, pp. 10, 13, 43, 71).

1 In the present roll there are references to rolls of the 11th, 12 th and 13 th years (pp. 7, 48, 54, 66), but references elsewhere seem clearly to point to earlier pipe rolls. On 10 May 1201 a writ is addressed to Meiler fitz Henry notifying him of the payment of a fine of 15 marks at the Westminster exchequer and instructing him ‘ quatinus finem ilium de rotulis nostris deleri faciatis ’ (Rot. liberate, p. 13): this must mean that the debt is not to be entered on the pipe roll of Michaelmas 1201, but it is also reasonably satisfactory evidence of the existence of Irish pipe rolls in the late twelfth century. A similar notification on 11 November 1203 of a payment in the king's chamber continues ‘ et ideo vobis mandamus quod predictus abbas de predictis xv. unciis quietus sit et ipsum quietum inrotulari faciatis ’ (ibid,, p. 71).

2 Rot. curiae regis, ii. 172–3: see further on this point below.

3 Rot. chart., pp. 61 b, 107 b, 173; Rot. litt. claus., 1204–24, pp. 47 b, 96 b.

4 Rot. liberate, p. 70; Rot. litt. claus., 1204–24, pp. 12, 71 b, 78 b.

5 The first mention of the office is in 1215 (ibid., p. 219 b).

6 Although the offices of treasurer and chamberlain were granted to Peter de Rivaux on 28 July 1232 (Cal. charter rolls, 1226–57, pp. 166–7), they are not combined. On 6 September the treasurer, John of St. John, now bishop of Ferns, and the chamberlain, Geoffrey de Turville, were ordered to surrender their offices (Pat. rolls, 1225–32, pp. 499–500), and in January 1233 Eustace of Leveland appears as treasurer and Benedict fitz Ambrose as chamberlain, but as deputies of Peter de Rivaux (Cal. pat. rolls, 1232–47, pp. 9, 10, 12): they continued in office after his removal (Close rolls, 1231–4, p. 412). On 5 March 1233 the treasurership was regranted separately to Peter (Cal. chart, rolls, 1226–57, p. 176): this confirms, if confirmation were necessary, that the offices were distinct.

7 In notifying the grant of the chancery of Ireland to Ralph Neville in 1232, provision is made for the appointment of a clerk at the Dublin exchequer to keep a counter-roll to the treasurer's roll (Close rolls, 1231–4, p. 113).

8 The earliest reference I have noticed is to a memoranda roll of 21 Henry III (Curtis, ‘ Feudal charters of the de Burgo lordship of Connacht ’, in Féil-sgribhinn Eíin Mhic Néill, p. 286): but such a roll was necessary to a developed system of accounting and we need not doubt its existence under John.

1 P.R., pp. 16, 18, 70, 72. The aid of Meath mentioned at p. 26 is probably the ‘ first ’ aid.

1 For our knowledge we are indebted almost solely to the Gesta Henrici and the Expugnatio Hibernica of Gerald of Wales: for the interpretation of these and the few other sources, see K. Norgate, John Lackland, pp. 12–29, and Orpen, Normans, i. 279–82; ii. 30–7, 91–108. On the details of administration they give little help.

2 Rot. curiae regis, ii. 172–3: ‘ Willelmus Brunus venit in comitatu de Diuelin et petiit pacem regis, ita quod coram iusticiario illius terre, scilicet Petro Piparde, predicti eidem Willelmo pacem vadiaverunt ’ When Pipard succeeded John de Courcy is not known, but the latter was in office certainly in 1189. Pipard seems to have been justiciar in 1194 and perhaps earlier (Orpen, Normans, ii. 112; iv. 307): he was succeeded in 1196 by Hamo de Valognes.

1 35 Rep. D. K., P.R.I., p. 36

2 P.R., pp. 7, 8, 12.

3 P.R., pp. 7, 46, 69.

4 P.R., p. 12. The farms of other towns are paid through the sheriff, e.g., Drogheda (p. 8), Cork (p. 48), and Limerick (p. 68): but the city of Waterford is farmed with the county (p. 46).

5 Rot. chart., pp. 210–11.

6 As Orpen has shown (Normans, ii. 199 sqq.).

1 Rot. litt. clans., 1204–24, p. 132 b.

2 ‘ Dominus Norwicensis episcopus, qui multum se laudavit de fideli consilio et auxilio vestro, presencia vestra, que nobis necessaria est in partibus Hybernie, ad presens carere non posset ’ (loc. cit.).

3 Otherwise the king's letter to him (cited in the preceding notes), written apparently late in October of that year, would be unintelligible: as Kate Norgate points out, the summons to Chester on August 19 (Rot. litt. claus., 1204–24, p. 131 b) must have been cancelled (John Lackland, p. 172n).

4 Histoire de Guillaume le Marechal (ed. P Meyer), ii. 161, 11. 14591–8. His presence is confirmed by a roll of imprests (P.R.O., E. 101/325 (2)), on m. 2 of which there is the entry: ‘ Prestitum factum militibus ad domum Templi iuxta Douoram per comitem Marscallum (sic) et Willelmum Bruwerre ’, and also by the charter roll, his first appearance in this year being on May 27 (Rot. chart., p. 193).

5 This is shown by the ‘ consuetudines scaccarii Londoniensis super debitis domini regis inquirendis ’ of 1201 (Chronica Rogeri de Houedene, iv. 152). The first surviving English memoranda roll after that date, for 9–10 John (P.R.O., E.370/1/4), has many references to ‘ dies areragii et senescallorum ’. So also when the thirteenth of 1207 was being assessed stewards were to appear, on behalf of earls and barons, before the justices (Rot. litt. pat., pp. 72–3): this explains the fine of £100 on Adam de la Roche ‘ pro excessu senescalli sui coram iusticiariis itinerantibus ad xiijmam’ (P.R.,p. 18).

6 Rot. oil. & fin., p. 551.

1 So Orpen, Normans, ii. 245n. Geoffrey was already steward when Meiler fitz Henry was justiciar, therefore in the period 1198–1208 (Reg. St. Thomas, Dublin, nos. 145–6: he also witnesses no. 144, as steward of Leinster, with Hugh, bishop of Ossory (consecrated 1202)).

2 Histoire, ii. 156–7, II. 14447–86. The Welsh war, at which the Marshal is here said to have been present, must be the expedition of July-August 1211. This accords well with the statement that the hostages ‘ pres d'un an furent en prison ’, for they must have been given before the king left Ireland on 24 or 25 August 1210 (ibid., pp. 151–2, II. 14319 sqq.; T D. Hardy, ‘ Itinerary of King John ’, in Rot. litt. pat., under this date).

3 P.R.,p. 18.

4 Orpen, Normans, ii. 210–14.

5 The exchequer would not, of course, advance money for the custody of the Marshal's castles, and they must therefore have been in the king's hand. This restricts the period to that between Meiler's seizure of Offaly and its restoration, with the castles, in the spring of 1208.

6 The names of the leaders are given in the king's reply (Rot. litt. pat., p. 72).

1 Histoire, ii. 136–140, II. 13883–4, 13961 sqq.

This we learn from the Histoire. Philip de Prendergast appears on the pipe roll as owing £49 13s. 4d. in respect of several imprests from the exchequer (P.R., p. 20): this suggests at least that he was trusted by the justiciar, John de Gray. Since he holds lands in Leinster it is the Marshal's duty to collect the debt.

3 Rot. Hit. pat., p. 80 b.

4 P.R., p. 18.

5 Gir. Camb., v. 314, 355–6; Orpen, Normans, i. 378, 381.

6 Histoire, ii. 144–5, II. 14127–31; and see Orpen's note, Normam, ii. 218.

7 Histoire, ii. 152,1. 14330.

1 P.R., p. 12. When the Histoire speaks of the castle, we must understand that the whole manor is included.

P.R., p. 16. So I explain (a) the claim to an allowance of sums amounting to £45 in respect of these lands (including Dunamase), on account of the first aid, although it is said only of the part of Aghaboe that Meiler held it, and (b) the claim of an allowance of £40 ‘ super servitium xv. militum Meileri filii Henrici ’, on account of the second aid. I assume that the allowance, which in each case is associated with the alienation of lands to Meiler, is claimed in respect of the same lands: no other allowances are claimed. What is difficult to explain is why no allowance in respect of Dunamase is claimed on account of the second aid: but the bargain struck may have excluded it.

3 P.R., p. 60. There is no consistency in mentioning menial and domestic staff. At Rathwire, where no professional soldiers, except the constable, are mentioned credit is taken for the wages of a turnkey, a gardener, a watchman, a porter, a laundress, a scullion, an interpreter and a clerk (p. 46). The chaplain, who is more generally mentioned, presumably acted as clerk elsewhere. At Dromore there are mentioned, besides the soldiers and the chaplain, a cook, two watchmen, two porters and a butler (p. 56).

1 P.R., pp. 54, 56, 58, 64. The name of Dundrum (Rath) castle could not be read by the transcriber, but there is no doubt of its identity, since later items in the account of the steward of Ulster (pp. 58, 60, 62, 64) show that he was responsible for the six castles named above, and Rath is the only missing name.

2 P.R., p. 60.