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1. The Munster estates of John d'Evreux

This month Beth Hartland, research assistant on the Henry III Fine Rolls project, who was formerly researching English landholding in Ireland in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries at the University of Durham, presents one example among the wealth of ties binding the political elites of England and Ireland in the reign of Henry III.

⁋1In the early to mid thirteenth century the politics of England and Ireland were closely interlinked. This was clearly apparent during the reign of Henry III: for example when William Marshal, one of the greatest landholders in Ireland, was the leading figure of the minority government; and again, following the king’s majority, when the rebellion of Richard, another Earl Marshal, quickly spread from England to Ireland, the flame being carried by certain of his important sub-tenants who held of him in both lands. The tenurial web stretching between the two islands was the key to the interconnectedness of their politics in this period. ¹ The complexity of this network is not readily apparent from entries in the fine rolls, however, for the fines of lords whose fathers had held in chief of the king in England naturally did not make mention of the lands which they had held of a mesne lord in Ireland. ² Nevertheless this month’s fine does demonstrate how events in a relatively remote part of Ireland were related to power struggles at the heart of the minority government.

⁋2In early 1229 John d’Evreux made a fine of £10 with the king to have a charter granting that he may hold the lands in the Decies which he had previously held of Thomas fitz Anthony as a tenant-in-chief of the king. ³ The star of Thomas fitz Anthony, the well-rewarded servant of William Marshal and King John ⁴ , was on the wane as those of Hubert de Burgh, and his nephew Richard, waxed. In 1223 the justiciar of Ireland was ordered to take Thomas’ lands into the king’s hand as he had allegedly detained some of the king’s escheats; in 1225 he was to pay the 250 marks rent per annum owed to the king for Decies and Desmond directly to Richard de Burgh for his maintenance on the king’s service as seneschal of Munster. ⁵ This must have grated with fitz Anthony, especially when Richard was formally granted the great lordship of Connacht in 1227. Fitz Anthony had intervened in Connacht in 1224 following the death of the native king, Cathal Crovderg, in support of the kingship of his son, Aedh – a policy supported by William Marshal, the justiciar; fitz Anthony was therefore undoubtedly among those said to be holding their castles ‘against the king’ in August 1226. ⁶

⁋3Such insubordination was not to be countenanced and Richard de Burgh, as seneschal of Munster, was granted the custody of fitz Anthony’s lands in December 1226. ⁷ In August 1227 the king ordered that all lands alienated by Thomas fitz Anthony be taken into his hand ⁸ , and these must have included the lands of John d’Evreux who, like fitz Anthony, was a Marshal tenant in Leinster. It was this disseisin which the king referred to in his letter to the justiciar of Ireland in August 1233 instructing him to give seisin of the lands ‘whereof the K. disseised John, and which [he]…subsequently granted to him by charter’. ⁹ Following the death of Thomas fitz Anthony, who had clearly been reinstated with his lands shortly before his demise, John d’Evreux was free to make a fine with the king for those lands which (from the royal perspective) should always have been held from him; and Henry, having assumed full regal powers in January 1227 and having attained his legal majority in October 1228, was in a position to make such grants in fee if he so wished. ¹⁰ It was now the royal will which had to be won, and John d’Evreux was luckier than William Walensis, also enfeoffed with land by Thomas fitz Anthony, from whom that will was withheld for some two years. ¹¹ The refusal of justiciars of Ireland to implement certain royal orders, a more enduring feature of relations between England and Ireland than the interconnectedness of political events, was also apparent in this period however, and John was still seeking seisin of his lands in the Decies in 1233, a portion of his lands having been retained by Richard de Burgh when justiciar. ¹²

1.1. C 60/28 Fine Roll 13 Henry III (28 October 1228–27 October 1229), membrane 9

1.1.1. 56

⁋1 Ireland. For John d'Evreux. John d'Evreux gives the king £10 for having his charter concerning certain lands in the Decies according to the metes contained in the same charter, the which lands he previously had of the gift of Thomas fitz Anthony, to have and hold from the king and his heirs to the same John and his heirs, rendering 31 m. per annum for all services at two terms, namely 15½ m. at Easter and 15½ m. at Michaelmas, just as is more fully contained in the charter rolls of the thirteenth year. Marlborough, 23 March.