Bibliography of royal proclamations of the Tudor and Stuart sovereigns and of others published under authority, 1485-1714 > England and Wales

cxviii THE COUNCIL OF IRELAND AND ITS PROCLAMATIONS
Under James I and Charles I the practice obtained of government by Royal letters. These
documents under sign manual were, both in Ireland and Scotland, the authority under which the
Privy Council of Scotland or the Lord Deputy and Council of Ireland undertook anything beyond
the merest routine. They were usually verified by the Signet, and did not pass through the Chancery.*
In Ireland they were probably entered on the books of the Privy Council when read, as they were in
Scotland, though this is merely conjecture, since none of the books of the period exist. In several
instances the Royal letters are entered on the Irish Patent Rolls instead of the patent for which they
were the authority, as for example No. 338 Ir.
The title of Lord Lieutenant was usually reserved for some great nobleman, often of the blood
royal, and, until the closing years of the Stuart period, it was the exception for the Lord Lieutenant
to be in residence in Ireland. Spenser, in his ‘ View of the State of Ireland ’, makes the proposal that
there should always be a Lord Lieutenant resident in England to ensure continuity in the policy
of the Irish Government. In the absence of a Lord Lieutenant a Lord Deputy was appointed, either
by the Lord Lieutenant under the authority of his commission or, more usually, by English Letters
Patent, or writ of Privy Seal entered on the Irish Patent Rolls. The Lord Deputy or other Chief
Governor entered on his rule when he took the oath of office,3 either publicly in St. Patrick’s or
privately before the Privy Council; and his powers were determined when he handed over the sword
of state on embarking for England, or on the installation of a successor. A special Act of the Irish
Parliament, more than once repeated (25 Hen. VI, c. 1), was necessary to allow him to go on board
ship when his intention was to visit another part of the country or one of the Irish islands. In the
vacancy caused by the absence of a Lord Deputy or his death in office, one or more Lords Justices
■were appointed to exercise his duties till he returned or until a successor was appointed from
England. The list of Chief Governors of Ireland given in the Appendix shows examples of such
appointments.
The method of filling a casual vacancy in the office of Chief Governor has suffered many
modifications. We learn that on the death of Stephen Archbishop of Tuam, justiciary of Ireland, all
those of the King’s Council in Ireland were by writs under the Irish Seal summoned to Dublin on
7 July 1288, when all by common assent settled that John Archbishop of Dublin should be Keeper
of Ireland until the King should otherwise provide. The earliest detailed account of the choice of
a Chief Governor is printed in full from the roll of 5 R. II by Mason.4 It took place on 9 January
1382, when the Lord Deputy died at Cork, and an election of the Dean of St. Patrick was made by
the Prelates, Peers, and Commons of the neighbourhood, at the instance of the Privy Council.5 The
assembly was therefore a Great Council and, as the account shows, had limited powers of taxation,
but was unable to tax the whole country. In 1401 Ormonde was elected Chief Governor by a similar
Council.0 The method prescribed in the Modus Tenendi Concilia et Parliamenta in Hibernia is prob¬
ably of greater antiquity than the document itself, which is not earlier than the reign of Richard II.
A Statute of 18 Ed. IV, c. 10 (1478), dealing with the election of a casual Chief Governor, states
and employments; but the Chancellor, of the said nine hundred
Justices of Peace, and several others. The Lieutenant can hurt
very few persons, who do not depend upon the favour of employ¬
ments ; but the Chancellor can affect all men of estates and
dealing in the world, by the power of his Court, and by the
harmony of his own will with the King’s conscience.
‘ The Lieutenant is for the most part a stranger to Ireland; but
the Chancellor seldom such, but a person of great family and
acquaintance. Moreover, all the Lieutenants, Deputies, and
Lords Justices, that have been these 150 years, have not, one with
another, continued two years in the office; but the Chancellors
have much more, and are seldom removed but by death, and
great revolutions. The Chancellor has ordinarily some other
dignity and office annexed, for they be often eminent prelates and
churchmen; but the Lieutenant is confined to temporals. The
Chancellor is speaker in Parliament, and by keeping the seal, can
check the Lieutenant in many cases. The Chancellors are bred
to eloquence and arguing; the breeding of a Lieutenant is
casual.’—The Political Anatomy of Ireland, by Sir William Petty
(1672), p. 71,ed. 1860.
*A number of them are preserved in the Philadelphia Papers
in the Irish Record Office and in B.M. MSS. 4784, 4794, 18824,
36775.
3 See Appendix V, p. cxci, n. 3, for the Oath of Office taken by
the Chief Governor.
4 W. Monck Mason, History and Antiquities of St. Patrick,
1820, p. 127.
5 Rot. Pat. Ire. 5 R. II, p. 1, n. 39.
6 ‘ Sur quoy le saige et honourable Counseill notre Seigneur le
Roy illeoqes soi assemblerount a une Comune Counseill illeoqes,
ou lez meillours et greindres Prelatez, Seigneures, et Comunes de
mesme la terre, et de lour comune avys’ . . . elected Ormonde
Justiciar and Governor at Tristledermot.—Graves, Council Roll of
Richard II, p. xxi.