User:Jnestorius/Liberty (medieval Ireland)

A liberty, in the medieval Lordship of Ireland, was a franchise or palatinate granted to one of the leading Anglo-Norman magnates, who exercised hereditary jurisdiction almost independent of the King of England (who was Lord of Ireland). The concept was similar to the Marcher Lords in Wales, but the Irish liberties were fewer and larger than the Welsh Marches. While officers of the Dublin Castle administration governed Ireland as a whole, many were preempted at local level within each liberty. Some liberties became "royal liberties" in which the king regained control but continued to appoint officials to the liberty's local administration rather than abolishing it altogether (compare the Duchy of Lancaster in England).

History

See also: Counties of Ireland § History

In the decades after the 1169 Norman invasion of Ireland, only the more accessible land near the south and east coast was shired into "royal counties" with a sheriff answerable to the Justiciar of Ireland in Dublin Castle. Remoter land was granted to a magnate ("lord" or "earl") who was rewarded for the greater effort of subduing the natives with a greater autonomy. Such grants specified vague territorial limits within which they were permitted to administer as much land as they could conquer. The first two such grants were Meath and Leinster; later came Ulster [? and Connacht ?].

I think looking at Lord of Connaught and John de Courcy that the first-generation of invaders were magnates totally independent of the English king, and only after John arrived could the situation be considered to have even the minimal regularity implied by the label "liberty". Though maybe the early vague grants were nevertheless the statutory basis for liberties; i.e. royal control increased gradually by custom and precedent (rather than suddenly by the grant of a new, more restrictive charter) so that they evolved into liberties from something else. Maybe the transition is marked by the change from "lord of X" to "Earl of X". John was Lord of Ireland in 1177; Henry II's visit was in 1171-2, so earlier Lords were maybe subject qua king of England, not via Lord of Ireland. Did the 1177 title invalidate the earlier Lords? Hand p11 says reserved pleas seems to date from 1208 regrant of Leinster

From Crooks 2005:

Liberty jurisdictions were not, however, precisely defined until 1205 in Ulster and 1208 in Leinster and Meath, when it was accepted that cross lands were reserved to the crown, royal justices had to be admitted to hear the four pleas, and actions could be taken on appeal to the the royal courts.

Veach 2010 shows that the heirs of de Lacy (Meath) and de Clare (Leinster) had to apply to the Lord/King for seisin (which suggests the grant was less than fully automatic) and also the jurisdictional dispute between Lord John and King Richard, as to whether their father Henry's grant of Ireland to John permanent, or whether Ireland reverted to Richard on Henry's death. "The security of Walter [de Lacy]’s position in Meath was clearly based upon King Richard’s indomitable will, for once Richard left on crusade his brother John was quick to assert his authority." (p.184) Both Richard (1194; p.185) and John (1195; p.187) issued charters to Walter for Meath. "It may not be a coincidence that shortly after Walter’s reconciliation with Richard, in December 1198, John once again displayed his support for the de Lacys in Ireland, and finally admitted the legitimacy of the tenure of Meath that Walter had obtained from King Richard in 1189 by issuing a confirmation charter for the lands Walter granted to his brother Hugh before 1191." (p.189) Hugh de Lacy lordship of Ulster 5 May 1205; earl of Ulster 29 May. (p.196)

Not sure of the status of Limerick: 12 January 1201 William de Braose was granted the honour of Limerick, except the city, churchlands, and William de Burgh's lands (Veach 2010, p.192). William de Burgh had been gifted the city in 1194 by the sons of Domnall Mór Ua Briain (p.185). On 8 July 1203 the city was taken from de Burgh by the justiciar and granted to de Braose during pleasure (pp.193-4). By end of 1205, de Burgh was dead and in 1206 Walter de Lacy held lordship of Limerick (p.196) -- he was de Braose's "custodian" (p.194) and also had been granted lands in Limerick and Breifne by John in 1197 (p.189). "To aid in the effective exploitation of their far-flung holdings, de Braose and Walter de Lacy took up position in separate realms, and each acted as custodian for the other’s lands there" (p.193). In 1206 Meiler fitz Henry took Limerick city by force; de Lacy tried to take it back in 1207 but John had meantime authorised Meiler to keep it (pp.196-7). On 24 April 1208, de Braose settled a dispute with King John for "massive debt to the Crown owed from his purchase of the honour of Limerick in 1201" and Walter de Lacy received a new charter for Meath (p.199) -- no mention of Limerick. "although he claimed to be in pursuit of de Braose as a debtor to the Crown, the king all but ignored him when William crossed the Irish Sea to treat for peace, leaving him behind in Wales as he sailed against his true quarries, the de Lacys. When John landed with the royal army at Crook on 20 June 1210,155 he ignored Limerick (the supposed casus belli) and instead marched north through Leinster towards Meath and Ulster." (p.201)

Liberties were inherited by the eldest son, but if no sons survived they might be divided between daughters. Rebel lords might forfeit their liberty, in which case it might be administered by the sheriff of County Dublin, erected into a county in its own right, or regranted as a liberty to someone else (or the same person, rehabilitated).

Through the thirteenth century, as the Norman colony prospered and expanded, the area of the liberties shrank as that of shired land grew. However, after the Bruce invasion in the 1310s, some of the devastated areas were regranted as liberties in a mostly vain attempt to shore up the beleaguered lands outside the English Pale. During the Tudor reconquest of the 16th century, most of Ireland was partitioned into royal counties of a more centralised Kingdom of Ireland. The only remaining liberty was the Earls of Ormond's in County Tipperary, which was extinguished as part of the Second Duke's attainder for supporting the Jacobite rising of 1715.

A 1428 ordinance by Ormond as LL applied to KK, TY, and XTY, to forestall cadet branches asserting independence.

• Kilkenny was in theory an ordinary county subject to the Dublin administration; Tipperary was an Ormond liberty, but during the fifteenth century the earl seems to have claimed liberty rights in Kilkenny as well.Statutes issued by the ;White Earl' in 1434 declared that the counties of Kilkenny and Tipperary 'should be one country under one rule or under one lordship' and provided for the government of Tipperary, Kilkenny and their crosses as a single unit. Kilkenny was effectively resumed into the hands of the crown after 1534.

  The creation of a liberty in County Kildare about 1500 detached that county from the normal processes of civil jurisdiction and put them instead in the hands of Kildare's own officials.

The Articuli Cleri of 6 May 1291 included nos 6 and 7 relating to interference of liberty officials in crosslands; clergy appeal to king's self-interest against the barons.

Crooks:

Moreover, despite ministerial complaint about the loss to the exchequer caused by the alienation of regalities, there was no general attack on liberty jurisdiction in the period [1356–1496]. Richard II, for one, indulged in ‘a new wave of liberty creation’, granting the ill-fated earl of Oxford, Robert de Vere, palatine jurisdiction over the whole of Ireland in 1385–6, and engaged in another round during his Irish expedition of 1394–5. Admittedly, these short-lived creations were for Richard’s favourites; but the resident nobility was also bolstered. Successive earls of Ormond had their authority nurtured by the king. In 1372 Edward III confirmed the liberty of Tipperary to the heirs of the second earl of Ormond, and in 1392 the government facilitated the Butlers’ purchase of the Despenser purparty of Kilkenny.

Crooks 2017 [lots here]:

Richard II, whose expedition to Ireland of 1394–5 was the occasion for the creation of a new title—earl of Cork created for Edward earl of Rutland (d. 1415), son of the duke of York, and later duke of Aumale.2 Rutland appears to have received his title before 5 January 1395, when he is styled in a charter witness list as ‘earl of Rutland and Cork’.3 Following the pattern established in the early fourteenth century the entire county of Cork was granted to him to hold ‘with the franchises of a county palatine’. By the first year of Henry IV, however, letters appointing a sheriff (rather than a seneschal) for Co. Cork indicate that the liberty had been suppressed

Gilbert, fifth Lord Talbot (d.1418). Gilbert claimed the liberty of Wexford by descent from John Hastings, earl of Pembroke, who had died without heirs in 1389.4 The Talbot title to Wexford was contested by Reginald, third Lord Grey of Ruthin (d.1440).5 Much to the outrage of Lord Grey, Sir John Talbot used his tenure as lieutenant of Ireland from 1414 to assert his family’s rights and, after the death of Gilbert Talbot in 1418, the lieutenant seized Wexford into the king’s hands

In 1521 George Talbot appointed an English seneschal to manage his affairs in the liberty of Wexford

In the case of Ireland’s oldest earldom, Ulster—created in 1205 for Hugh II de Lacy (d. 1243) and revived in 1263 by the Lord Edward for Walter de Burgh (d. 1271)—the distinction between ‘resident’ and ‘absentee’ earls is still more artificial

a writ issuing from the chancery of the liberty of Trim in Ireland in the name of Edmund Mortimer (d. 1425) styles him ‘earl of March and Ulster, lord of Wigmore, Clare, Trim and Connacht’.2 After 1425, Ulster passed to Richard duke of York (d. 1460), who visited Ireland twice and provided a focus of loyalty for the otherwise fractious Irish earls.3 In 1449, when the future duke of Clarence, George (executed in 1470), son of Richard of York, was born at Dublin and the ‘earls of Ormond and Desmond stood sponsors at the font’.4 The earldom passed to the crown in 1461, and although at this point aspirations to exercise lordship directly disappeared, and accommodation was made with native lords,

Ralph Stafford—created earl of Stafford the following year—agreed a marriage contract by which his daughter Beatrice would marry the future second earl of Desmond, bringing with her a marriage portion of £1000 and a jointure of £200, as well as the demise of his purparty of the liberty of Kilkenny for a term of ten years.

The descent of the liberty of Wexford from the Hastings earls of Pembroke is highly involved and discussed in R. Ian Jack, ‘Entail and descent: the Hastings inheritance, 1370 to 1436’, BIHR 38 (1965), pp. 1–19.

As David Crouch discusses above, the franchises enjoyed by the fourteenth-century Irish earls were more prosaic, being penetrated by the royal government from outwith because of the reserved crown pleas and hollowed out from within by the erection inside the boundaries of the liberty of the ‘county of the crosses’ to which the royal government appointed its own sheriffs. Indeed, royal ministers moved with celerity to resume some of the newfangled liberties created for the Irish earls, and return them to the status of royal shires: Louth in 1329 and Kildare in 1345. Elsewhere, despite occasional ministerial complaints, the trend was towards perpetuation and extension of franchises, rather than restriction and suppression. In the 1290s, Geoffrey Geneville (d. 1314) had been in a unique position among the English lords in Ireland in that he was empowered to hear the four pleas of the crown within his liberty of Trim. When Edmund Mortimer (d. 1425) came of age in 1415, he had a series of charters extending back as far the original grant of Meath in 1172 to Hugh Lacy I (d. 1186) inspected and registered in the Irish chancery. The king then confirmed that Trim was to be held by Edmund with all the liberties exercised by his ancestors, including the four pleas.2 Likewise the earls of Desmond, whose grant of Co. Kerry as a liberty in 1329 included the standard reservations,3 seem later to have legitimately claimed cognizance of the four pleas: the inquisition post mortem of John fourth earl of Desmond (d. 1399), taken in December 1420 at Tralee, claims that the earl had ‘a liberty and regal jurisdiction [L. libertatem et regale iurisdicionem] within the same county [Kerry] in chief, viz. to have cognizance and jurisdiction of all pleas both royal and personal before his seneschal and justices’.4 Less is known about the liberty of Wexford, but as late as the early sixteenth century, George Talbot fourth earl of Shrewsbury and Waterford, was jealously protective of his franchise, as emerges from the defensive tone of a letter written by Gerald ninth earl of Kildare in 1519, who denied having infringed Talbot’s liberty

The ordinances issued at Fethard, probably in 1428, assert that that the community of Kilkenny and Tipperary ‘shall be one patria under one rule or one lordship’—an assertion of authority not only over the liberty of Tipperary but also Co. Kilkenny and the crosslands, to which the crown had customarily appointed royal sheriffs.

1. 3:

Liberty jurisdictions were not, however, precisely defmed until 1205 in Ulster and 1208 in Leinster and Meath, when it was accepted that cross lands were reserved t~ the crown, royal justices had to be admitted to hear the four pleas, and actions could be talcen on appeal to the royal courts. Before this, the lords of these liberties-although they owed knight service-rnay have had much greater freedom of action (see H. S. Sweetrnan (ed), Calendar of documents relating to Ireland, 1171-1307 [hereafter CDI] (5 vols, London 1875-86), i §§263, 381-82; Normans, ii 233-34; cf. Otway-Ruthven, Ireland, 182-87; eadem, 'Knight service in Ireland', 1-3). Moreover, while the thirteenth century witnessed greater articulation of royal power, it was also the 'age of defìnition' of liberties in the W elsh March, in response to the assertiveness of Henry III in particular (see Davi es, 'Kings, lords and liberties in the March of W ales', 53-59; idem, Age of conquest, 287-88). Counter-factual speculation is dangerous, but without the concessions to royal power in 1205-08, the lords in Ireland rnight have tried to articulate and defend much greater jurisdictional immunity.

The Trim liberty was suppressed in 1461; the Meath liberty was abolished [some time after 1460] and briefly revived three times: in 1472, 1463-4, and 1478-9.

Malcolm 2007 p.92-93 on administration of Carlow 1270-1306.

A cause of Ormond-Desmond feuding was control of lands owned by Desmond within Ormond liberty.

MacCotter 2005:

The usage of the cantred in the area of local administration involved variables, chiefly the difference between the royal counties and the liberties or private franchises. The latter were lordships where most royal jurisdictional powers were delegated to their lords at the time of their original grant. In the course of the thirteenth century a process of enshirement led to the creation of various counties whose jurisdictional prerogatives were retained by the crown. The shire model used in these cases was also partly, or largely, adopted in most of the liberties. Over time the status of several of these units alternated between that of shire and liberty, now one, now the other. The permanent royal counties were Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Waterford, Connacht, and Roscommon. Tipperary and Kerry remained as royal counties until erected into liberties around 1330. Louth, normally a royal county, became a liberty between 1319 and 1330. The liberty of Kildare had the status of a royal county between 1297 and 1317 and permanently after 1345. The liberty of Carlow changed to a royal county between 1306 and 1313. Following division between heiresses, one moiety of the original liberty of Meath was erected into the county of Meath in 1297 while the other remained a liberty (Trim). The remaining liberties, Kilkenny, Wexford and Ulster, were never royal counties.7

Quinn (1939) summary 1485-1534:

Palatine liberties and honours which were being administered as such during the period under review comprise: those of Tipperary and Ormond in county Tipperary, under the earls of Ormond; those of Kerry (north Kerry), Any (county Limerick) and Dungarvan (county Waterford), under the earls of Desmond; Wexford under the earls of Shrewsbury; and, for the latter part of the period, Kildare under the earls of Kildare. Three great liberties had fallen to the crown in 1460 (death of Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York) as the Mortimer inheritance-Ulster, Connacht and Meath. Two of these will be referred to later. Meath was administered as a royal liberty during 1467-80, after which the separate administration was terminated. Kilkenny could, as has been noted, be reckoned as a palatine liberty at the end of the fourteenth century. In the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, the Butlers exercised certain regalities there, but there is no evidence in the Ormond Deeds of the existence of a formal liberty-administration and some evidence there and elsewhere that it was not so regarded. Nevertheless it has been included with the county Tipperary liberties as inside the Butler principality. Similarly the formal position of the Geraldine earls of Desmond in county Cork is obscure. They held extensive lands there and the county has been included in the territory under their control. No effective liberties were exercised in Connacht or Ulster during this period

legally, Ulster was a royal liberty...In Ulster the liberty had gone out of existence because there had been no resident lord to hold it together: in Connacht the lordship of the de Burgh had been continuous, but the fabric of administration which had characterised it as a feudal liberty had almost disappeared. ...The lords of Clanrickard became the hereditary representative of the crown in Connacht, and no attempt was made until Elizabethan times to prove that they were usurpers. They seem to have maintained fairly regularly a sheriff for the liberty.

1381–2: Roger Mortimer (born 1374), Earl of Ulster, was Chief Governor of Ireland:

During the minority of the Earl Roger, the colonial documents connected with Eastern Ulster, were issued under a special seal, presenting on one side the royal arms, and on the other the figure of Richard II., seated on the throne, with a sceptre in his right hand, and bearing the circumscription, " Sigillum Ricardi, Regis Angliae et Franciae et Domini Hiberniae et Custodis Libertatis Ultoniae." A similar seal, with the name of Meath, instead of that of Ulster, was used for instruments concerning the Earl's liberty in the former county.

Richard II made Robert de Vere, Duke of Ireland palatine 1385; and other short-lived in 1394-5 expedition.

Ellis 1980 p.502:

in the question of the liberty jurisdiction of the two earls in Cos. Kildare and Tipperary, they were not to be treated alike. There are strong indications that under Wolsey in 1527-8 an unsuccessful attempt had been made to curtail or suppress both liberties. In Kildare's case, this attack was pressed again [by Cromwell] in the spring of 1534 on the grounds that the liberty had no warrant in law, and probably also that it was being abused. This second charge, which was levelled by spokesmen for the Butlers and probably pressed during Kildare's examination in council between about March and May 1534, was very probably true, though the same accusation was made against Ossory, at least in 1537. But it seems fairly clear that the liberty of Kildare had been formally restored to the earl about 1515, though not as a palatine liberty. Thus the decision to suppress 'the pretended lybertie of Kyldare', albeit in line with the policy to be developed by Cromwell in England, was politically unwise. If it were seriously intended to reform Kildare rather than to break him, the suppression of his liberty had to be accompanied by a similar move against the liberty of Tipperary

The Jurisdiction in Liberties Act 1535 for England has its Irish analogue in the Act of Absentees 1537, where absentee liberty lords whose lands were used in Silken Thomas' 1534 rebellion had their lands taken back. Nugent says Carlow in particular was still a liberty till then, latterly of the Howards Duke of Norfolk.

MacCotter 2000:

Under this new system, these church lands were settled by the Anglo-Norman barons and their men, but owing homage, service and rent to the see, while a significant portion of the ecclesiastical lands were retained directly by the diocesan authorities as demesne land. Thus the bishops became great landlords in right of their church, enjoying a similar status to the barons who held directly under the king, although technically the bishops held under a different tenure, that of frankalmoign (‘free alms’), subject only to the feudal incident of wardship, i.e. possession by the crown of the see-lands during periods of episcopal vacancy. As chief lords of their fees the bishops additionally enjoyed the feudal incidents of wardship and escheat, the latter in the case of the death without heirs of the tenant and in that of the tenant’s conviction on a serious felony charge. The status of the church as essentially tenant-in-chief under the crown, and thus on a par with the barons, required the establishment of distinct local government administrations in those cases where the crown devolved its powers on its barons by means of palatine creations, or liberties. Thus the creation of the liberties of Tipperary and of Kerry in the early fourteenth century resulted in two local administrations, each with its distinct sheriff, courts, coroners, etc., in both counties; in Kerry the County of Kerry and the County of the Cross of Kerry. The latter continued as a distinct administration at least into the 1420s.

:

The pattern of land distribution inherited by the Anglo-Norman dioceses was not regular: large areas of property lay together, often with pre-invasion monasteries or important churches at their centre, with smaller, sometimes single-denomination plots distributed at greater distances from the major monastic or church sites. The ecclesiastical sites at the centre of these larger blocks usually became the location for the new episcopal manors. By around 1600 we find that, apart from the chief or cathedral manor, significant erosion of property has occurred: the lesser manors retained only what been their demesne lands, and a few chief rents from some of the lands which had earlier been held by the manorial free tenants. It is usual to find that the church has lost possession of many of the isolated parcels held earlier

Frame 1993:

In 1215 there were only three royal sheriffs in Ireland, operating from the king's towns of Dublin, Waterford with Cork, and Limerick; most of country lay within great baronial liberties or the remains of Irish kingdoms. By 1300oo the network of shires had expanded and become much more closely textured. There were eleven sheriffs, nine of them in the provinces of Leinster, Meath and Munster. Except for Ulster, which was awkward of access, the liberties were on a smaller scale and more firmly pinned within the embrace of royal government. [p.90]

1570 parliament "marked the de facto end of the medieval earldom of Ulster".

Government

Just as the Lord of Ireland appointed a justiciar to administer in his absence, so the Lord or Earl of a liberty, who was rarely resident there, appointed a seneschal. The seneschal appointed a sheriff to administer justice; most liberties had just one sheriff, thereby constituting a single county. However the liberties Leinster and Ulster were subdivided into multiple counties. The seneschal appointed a sheriff. In most liberties, there were four "crown plea"s reserved to the king rather than the local magnate; these were rape, arson, treasure trove, and forestall. The exception was the liberty of Trim, where even these were granted. Local litigants could in any case petition the crown for a writ of error.

irelandbyways suggests the reserved pleas date from John's regrants post 1197, not the original 1170s grants.

Indeed:

We have seen that the Lordship of Leinster was conferred upon Strongbow; his daughter and heiress, Isabella, married William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke. This Earl sought a confirmatory grant of the Lordship of Leinster from King John. At this time, however, the King sought to limit the wide power enjoyed by the Irish Barons, and reserved to him self by the confirmatory grant certain pleas of the Crown, Appeals to the King's Court, marriages of heirs and appointments to Bishoprics and Abbeys.

Medieval Ireland: An Encyclopedia:

There were also private sheriffs within the greater liberties who were immediately answerable to the lords of these liberties and their stewards (or seneschals). The large liberty of Leinster had been divided into four separate administrative units from the late twelfth century on. A separate sheriff of County Kildare is first mentioned in 1224, before the partition of the liberty itself between coheirs. References to the other counties seem to come only after the division (to Co. Wexford in 1249; to County Carlow in 1254; to County Kilkenny in 1255), but the division itself probably followed the preexisting division into separate counties. The liberty of Ulster was also divided into a number of separate counties. ... sheriffs of the cross-lands also came to play a rule in acting in the counties within the liberties when the steward of the liberty failed to do so.

Did the liberty automatically pass with the Earldom? Was it always and Earldom? Was John de Courcy (a) made Earl of Ulster in 1181 (Cockayne's peerage says not) (b) granted the liberty of Ulster at any stage (1203 grant to de Lacy implies de facto control but not necessarily de jure control)?

Many towns in Ireland had municipal charters granted by the lord of the liberty rather than by the King of England; these were often but not always restated or replaced by later royal charters. Examples include Carlow and Kilkenny, whose first charters were from William Marshal, lord of Leinster. Did any municipal corporations at the Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840 operate in part under charters granted by a palatine lord rather than a monarch? Although in Meath at least sublords also incorporated boroughs in their fiefs:

The set of powers which was delegated to De Lacy by Henry II was one of the most extensive in Ireland and presumably included the right to create boroughs although this is not specifically mentioned in the charter; ... in fact as Otway Ruthven notes, even relatively minor landlords created boroughs.

There is no surviving evidence of commission of the peace appointed by the lord; conversely, the royal commission of the peace extended to a liberty in times of forfeit and minority, and even at at other times in the fourteenth century.

Tipperary:

the earl appointed his own officers to oversee the administration of the county in lieu of the former royal officials whom they superseded : a seneschal of the liberty, chancellor, treasurer, sheriff, and various minor officials. In general, he based his administration on the pattern of the older Irish liberties but it may be noted that in the case of Tipperary, the specific functions of the liberty and seigneurial administrations were more clearly defined due to the fact that a seigneurial administration (headed by the seneschal of the earl's lands) was already in existence before the liberty came into being. Thus the earl had two seneschals heading separate administrations unlike the older liberties where one seneschal discharged both functions.

By contrast, Hand (p.116) says a seneschal and a steward in all liberties.

One of the Statutes of Kilkenny was to allow a sheriff or seneschal in hot pursuit of a criminal to enter the jurisdiction of another sheriff or seneschal.

Sir William Drury as Lord President of Munster succeeded in holding sessions in Clonmel (Tipperary) in 1576 and incurred the wrath of the Earl of Desmond in 1577 by trying to hold sessions in Tralee (Kerry). In September 1578 he held sessions in Kilkenny (Ormond but not officially a palatinate).

Herbert Wood:

Sir John Davies, in his Reports of Cases and Matters in Law, maintains that this liberty, as well as the other regal liberties of Ulster, Wexford, etc., were palatinates. As far as Wexford is concerned, Edward III granted to Laurence Hastings, earl of Pembroke and lord of Wexford, "praerogativam & honorem comitis Palatini in terris quas tenet de here ditate dicti Adomari," while in a quo warranto of 1621 for the liberty of Tipperary we find the words, "and further to do and execute within the aforesaid county all other things whatsoever which appertain to any earl of any County Palatine to be done or executed,"but the Act of 1715 by which the liberty was abolished was more cautious, as it described the franchise as "the Regalities and Liberties of the County of Tipperary and Cross Tipperary, commonly called the County Palatine of Tipperary." I have not, however, found any reference to the liberty of Trim as a palatinate, though the grant of Henry II to Hugh de Lacy seems to be sufficiently comprehensive to justify it in being so regarded. But the qualifications subsequently introduced, such as appeal to the sovereign and escheats to the Crown, tended to render even the full franchise of a liberty of lesser dignity than that of a palatinate.

Palatine barons

See also: Irish feudal barony

Some sources say Lords also granted peerages to vassals:

Those titular BARONS, to be found in England and Ireland, owed their dignity to the counts palatine, who had the power of conferring such honours in their several palatines, under the royal seignory, which the enjoyed by grants from the crown. In England were the Barons of Halton, Malpas, and Kinderton, created by Hugh Lupus, Earl of Chester. The Barons of Walton, in Lancashire, and of Hilton, in Durham. In Ireland, the Barons of Skreene, Navan, and Galtrim, of the county of Meath. The Barons of Narvo and Rabane, of Kildare; the Barons of Neville, of Wexford; the Barons of Savage and Musset [sic Bligh; Misset in Davies; recte Bisset], of Ulster; the Barons of Loughmoe, of Tipperary, and the Barons or BURNCHURCH, of Kilkenny. See Davis's Reports, page 65; Tighe’s Stat. Surv. of the County of Kilkenny, p. 637, and the family of Barry in this volume.

"J.W.H.", 1853:

The Palatines' power of creating Barons does not appear to have been profusely exercised. Davies only mentions eleven as being in Ireland, though this was far short of the number; of whom two alone, the Baron Misset (correctly, Bisset), and the Baron Savage, were in Ulster; but, although there is no authentic list of the Ulster Barons extant, there were unquestionably many more.

A 1793 law book citing Davis 1609:

• No tenure created by a subject, though it be a tenure in gross of his person, can by any possibility grow of aspire to be a tenure in capite of the king. And therefore if the prince or other subject create such tenure of his person, and after is made king, this does not become tenure in chief.
• the prince shall not have the prerogative of capite tenure during the life of the king.

These titles were not part of the Peerage of Ireland and did not confer a seat in the Irish House of Lords; some "palatine barons" sat in the Irish House of Commons, such as Rowland Fitzgerald, 2nd Baron of Burnchurch (a peerage in the liberty of Kilkenny), who was MP for County Kilkenny in 1532. Baron Slane was originally a palatine baron of Meath created for Richard le Fleming by Hugh de Lacy; a descendant, Simon Fleming, 7th palatine baron Slane, sat in the Irish House of Lords, implying a barony by writ in the Irish peerage; the 7th palatine baron is thus considered the first holder of the peerage of Baron of Slane.

However, William Lynch in 1830 denies that these feudal barons were palatine barons, and denies that Irish liberties were palatinates in the manner of the Palatinate of Chester.

Baronial families in Meath continued in late 15C to hold the estates (or ‘baronies’) which they received from Hugh de Lacy in the twelfth century. "All baronial families occupied various local offices to some extent in the fourteenth century and appeared, if a little more occasionally, on the surviving writs of parliamentary summons. However, even though the Husseys of Galtrim and the Nangles of Navan maintained their influence in local government, only the Flemings and Nugents were included in the peerage and benefited from aristocratic patronage leading to high office in central government in the fifteenth century."

Subdivisions

Some lords divided their liberties into subunits variously called bailiwicks or counties. This may cause confusion, since liberties were also called "counties" (a "county palatine" or "the county of the liberty", as opposed to a "royal county" directly subject to the king as Lord). Liberties, or counties within liberties, might be divided into cantreds in the same way as royal counties; however, these did not always have the same range of functions as in royal counties.

Ulster

The liberty of Ulster was subdivided into bailiwicks, later called counties. From north to south these were:

Name	Location	Notes
Twescard, Coulrath, or Coleraine		Twesca
Antrim
Knockfergus or Carrickfergus
Ards		Ards and Blathewyc were merged some time between 1333 and 1400.
Blethwyc, Newtown,
Ladcathel, Lecale, or Down

Hand p.116 says only 5 shires.

Sometimes Ulster as a whole sent MPs to the Parliament; sometimes its constituent counties did. Writs of election were served in 1559 for counties Ards, Down, and Antrim, and the town of Carrickfergus; although none returned MPs. Potter says "The liberty of Ulster reverted to the Crown in 1461 and was extinguished around 1482." Katharine Simms says "In the case of Ulster, this independence [from Dublin Castle of lands beyond the Pale] was institutionalized by Tiptoft's parliament at Drogheda [1467], which ruled that notwithstanding the fact that the earldom of Ulster was now vested in the Crown, it should continue to be administered as a separate liberty, rather than a royal shire", citing Irish Record Office Series of Early Statutes (vol.3 1914 p.576 —presumably 1467–68 (7 & 8 Edw. 4) c. 51— and see also vol.4 1939 pp.50–52). These counties, and the liberty itself, were largely defunct by 1570, when their territory were made into the royal shires of Antrim and Down. However, the county of the town of Carrickfergus justified the maintenance of its separate status as a corporate county as being the continuation of the (larger) medieval county of Carrickfergus. It was finally merged into County Antrim by the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898.

Leinster

The liberty of Leinster was divided into four counties: Carlow, Kilkenny, Wexford, and Kildare. When the liberty was divided into five portions for William Marshal's five daughters, four of these portions became liberties with the same names as the four former counties, all of which subsequently became royal counties. (See the table below for details of these four liberties.) The fifth portion, that of Eva Marshal, was never erected into a liberty. It comprised lands in previously in the west of the Leinster liberty's county Kildare, and now in the east of County Laois. The lands were inherited by Eva's daughter Maud de Braose, whose husband Roger Mortimer never occupied them.

The church

The established church was exempt from much of the secular law made by the king.

Crosslands

The crosslands or croceæ were the lands within a county or liberty owned by the church, whether the diocese or a religious order. Crosslands were not included in the granting to a lord of a secular liberty,

irelandbyways says the precedent for this was:

in 1197 Prince John as Lord of Ireland had seized the temporalities of the See of Leighlin, thereby asserting non-spiritual sovereignty over church lands within the Liberties.

but

• this description of the events and this both blame Hamo de Valoniis, Justiciar of Ireland.
• Was Leinster was in John's hands then anyway? Or was it just that, since he was in Ireland, he did what he pleased?

"Margaret Murphy provides a careful reassessment of the episcopates of the first two Anglo-Norman archbishops of Dublin, correctly—in my view—identifying the motives behind the foundation of the collegiate church of St Patrick. Equally correctly she highlights the row between John, lord of Ireland, and Archbishop Cumin over de Valognes’s seizure of the temporalities of the see of Leighlin, though she misses its real significance—the assertion of the royal right over church lands situated within the liberty of Leinster."

At first the crosslands was administered by the sheriff of County Dublin, [Hand p12 says "juridically part of a convenient royal county"] but later each liberty's crosslands formed a county of itself, with their own sheriff and grand jury. Thus for example County Tipperary was divided into the County of the Liberty of Tipperary, with a seneschal appointed by the Earl of Ormonde, and the County of the Cross of Tipperary, comprising enclaves of church land scattered throughout the liberty. Each county of the cross was subject to the same jurisdiction and taxation as a shire or royal county, and was entitled to its own representation as a county constituency in the Parliament of Ireland. Richard Bagwell says 1374 Parl writs to liberties and crosses of Meath (first Parl) and Ulster, Wexford, Tipperary and Kerry (second Parl). Original quoted by Robert Montgomery Martin. Only the crosslands at the time of the grant were excluded from the liberty; land subsequently donated for religious purposes remained within it, although this caused legal disputes.

Art Cosgrove says crosslands specifically excluded (citing Otway-Ruthven). Yes, Otway-Ruthven says so.

Medieval Ireland: An Encyclopedia:

In the fourteenth century there also emerged within each of the liberties counties consisting of lands belonging to the church (cross-lands) in the liberty that were exempt for this reason from the control of the lord of the liberty and directly subject to the king’s rule. These sheriffs of the cross-lands also came to play a rule in acting in the counties within the liberties when the steward of the liberty failed to do so.

The 1297 act that made Loxeudy a county also trasnferred the crosslands of both Loxeudy and Trim into the new county Meath; and Trim was sometimes called the "liberty of Meath" as distinct from this separate "county of Meath". Thus writ of election includes "Vic Mid" and "Sen libtatis Mid" [not "Sen libtatis Trim"] and no "Vic Croc idm".

Religious liberties

The Manor of St. Sepulchre was a personal jurisdiction equivalent to a secular liberty, but with the Archbishop of Dublin for the time being as its lord. Its privileges were not finally extinguished until 1854.

William Betham, 1851:

These extensive liberties and free customs were equal to those of a palatine county or honour, and constituted the Archbishop's lordships, manors, and crosses into a feudal dignity or principality, similar to a county palatine. They are indeed nearly identical to those granted to the Earl of Ulster. The only grant of more extensive liberties was made to Hugh de Lacy, of the lordship of Meath, in which the king reserved only homage and fealty.

Hand p.132 mentions , and alludes to "important claims to liberties on the part of other prelates". Omany in Connacht was not a liberty but was granted by king Edward to Richard de la Rochelle with certain rights.

Statutes

References to liberties in descriptions of Irish statutes

Year	Session	PRO vol	Description	Liberty
1447	(25 Hen. 6) c. 33	2	Session of Duke of York in liberty of Meath, which was not held owing to the seneschal's absence on an expedition in Ulster, to be held later	Meath
1449	(28 Hen. 6 (Dublin)) c. 24	2	Sessions in the liberty of Meath not to be discontinued	Meath
1450	(28 Hen. 6 (Drogheda)) c. 22	2	Licence to Sir Esmond Mulso to appoint a deputy seneschal of the liberty of Meath, during his absence in the Kings wars	Meath
1450	(28 Hen. 6 (Drogheda)) c. 24	2	Licence to Sir William Welles to appoint a deputy escheator, liberty of Meath, during his absence in the King's wars	Meath
1450	(29 Hen. 6) c. 15	2	Leave to Sir William Welles, seneschal of the liberty of Meath, to appoint a deputy	Meath
1453-54	(32 Hen. 6) c. 3	2	The sessions of the liberty of Meath to be restrained until another day	Meath
1453-54	(32 Hen. 6) c. 4	2	That the court in the liberty of Meath may be held before the Justice of the liberty for a year	Meath
1455	(34 Hen. 6) c. 5	2	Justice of the Liberty of Meath to act for Thomas, Earl of Kildare, seneschal, in his absence	Meath
1455	(34 Hen. 6) c. 13	2	Sir William Welles to have his escheatorship of the liberty of Meath, notwithstanding Statute 32 Hen. 6	Meath
1455	(34 Hen. 6) c. 30	2	Sir John Douedall discharged of the office of seneschal of the liberty of Ulster	Ulster
1456	(35 Hen. 6) c. 20	2	Sessions of the liberty of Meath to be held by the Justice in absence of Thomas fitz-Morice, seneschal	Meath
1458	(36 Hen. 6) c. 18	2	Duke of York may hold sessions of his liberty of Trim, whether seneschal be present or not	Trim
1459	(37 Hen. 6) c. 4	2	Sessions of the liberty of Trim may be held, in absence of seneschal, by the justice	Trim
1460	(38 Hen. 6) c. 16	2	Receivers to account for subsidy granted in liberty of Meath, in Exchequer of lordship of Trim	Meath, Trim
1460	(38 Hen. 6) c. 22	2	Sessions of the court the liberty of Meath to be held before the Justice of the Duke of York in the seneschal's absence	Meath
1471-72	(11 & 12 Edw. 4) c. 27	3	King to enjoy his liberty of Meath, with Seneschal, etc	Meath
1471-72	(11 & 12 Edw. 4) c. 61	3	Confirmation of grant of office of seneschal, liberty of Meath, to Sir Robert Bolde	Meath
1475-76	(15 & 16 Edw. 4) c. 57	4	Liberty of Wexford to be exercised by Gilbert Talbot during the minority of George, Earl of Shrewsbury	Wexford
1475-76	(15 & 16 Edw. 4) c. 72	4	Inquisition taken before the Escheator of the Liberty of Meath, 3 Hen. 6, as to Sir Simon Cusak annulled	Meath
1479-80	(19 & 20 Edw. 4) c. 22	4	Liberty of Meath to be void	Meath
1479-80	(19 & 20 Edw. 4) c. 33	4	George, Earl of Shrewsbury, to have a liberty in County Wexford to be exercised during his minority by Davy Ketyng, Seneschal, under Gilbert Talbot to whom the custody of the County was granted	Wexford
1484	(1 Ric. 3) c. 12	5	Davy and Patrick Keating to surrender to Dublin Castle to account for the royal service of the liberty of Wexford	Wexford
1537	(28 Hen. 8) c. 6P	SLRA 2009	Liberty of the County of Wexford [?to king as opposed to extinguished, based on Irish Chancery references to "Liberty of Wexford" down to 1567.]	Wexford

List and timeline

Name		From	Until	Grantee	Location	Notes
Lordship of Meath		1172	12??	Hugh de Lacy I	Kingdom of Mide/Diocese of Meath; Counties Meath, Westmeath, and Longford	Original grant "as Murrough O'Melaghlin had held it" included four reserved pleas. Hugh's son Walter had seisin in 1194 and forfeited it later.
		1208	1210	Walter de Lacy		Restored without four reserved pleas.
		1220	1241	Walter de Lacy		Powers reduced in 1223 to court baron and acting as sheriff. Divided between two granddaughters after Walter's death.
	Liberty of Trim	1252 [as Walter], 1254 [own writs]	1479	Maud de Lacy	Mainly Meath, with smaller parts in Westmeath and Longford. Check this: maybe reversed	Maud was wife of Geoffrey de Geneville/Joinville. I think C15 sometimes called "Liberty of Meath", e.g. [1] [2] [3]. Merged with the crown in 1461. Seized from Geoffrey twice by Dublin Castle: in 1293 and 1302.
	Liberty of Kells / Loxeudy [= Lough Sewdy]	1254	1280	Margery, wife of John de Verdun	Mainly Westmeath and Longford, with smaller parts in Meath. Check this: maybe reversed	Suppressed by justiciar Robert Ufford; erected into a county (county Meath) in 1297. Smith pp93-95,122 says de Verdons failed to get liberty status. Hand p13 says "the de Verdun lords of Loxeudy never had any greater privilege than that of acting as sheriffs of their lands". Wood says same powers as Walter in 1223; petition in 1267 rejected. "the liberty was not revived, but was merged in the liberty of Trim in 1330".
King's liberty of Meath		1478	15???	(King)	Former Lordship of Meath	In 1478, Henry Grey appointed seneschal and treasurer of Liberty at same time as Lord Deputy of Ireland. Liberty enacted by parliament at Trim. In 1495 records reported stolen.
Lordship/Earldom of Ulster		1170s		John de Courcy	Ulaid; Counties Antrim and Down	For subdivisions, see above. See Earl of Ulster: did Walter de Burgh, 1st Earl of Ulster get a new grant in 1264 with his title? Did the liberty go when the earldom was merged in the crown in 1461?
		1205	1210
		1227	1243,1264/1253 – 16th century	Hugh de Lacy II
Lordship of Leinster		c.1172	1245	Strongbow	Laigin (including Osraige); South of modern Leinster	Partitioned between the five daughters of William Marshal. Four parts became liberties as follows (for the fifth, see above):
	Liberty of Carlow	1247x9	1306	Maud Marshal	County Carlow; south Wicklow	Maud's husband was Hugh Bigod, 3rd Earl of Norfolk. More here. Taken into king's hands twice in 1290s (probably due to exchequer debts) and surrendered in April 1302 and restored a few weeks later (ditto). Malcolm
		1312	1344	Thomas of Brotherton		Hand p.121. Partitioned between Thomas' two daughters in 1338.
	Liberty of Kilkenny	1247x9	1396x1402	Isabel Marshal	County Kilkenny; west Laois (North Ossory)	Partitioned among sisters in 1314 "Rather than appointing attorneys, the heiresses were content to allow senior officials from the locality to administrate the liberty, to such an extent that occasionally the Crown confiscated the liberty because of the lack of participation of its lords in its administration." After 1402, de jure a county, it was de facto part of the liberty of Tipperary, except that Upper Ossory was Gaelic
	Liberty of Wexford	1247x9	1536	Joan Marshal	Wexford	Joan's daughter Joan de Munchensi was married to William de Valence, Earl of Pembroke. Partitioned among sisters in 1324 "built up by the famous Sir John Talbot in the early fifteenth century. An act of 1476 confirmed to George Talbot, a minor" who was the last holder.
		1536	after 1567	Crown
	Liberty of Kildare	1247x9	1297	Sibyl Marshal	Kildare and East Offaly	Sibyl's daughter Agnes's husband was William de Vesci
		1317	1345 (or 1432?)	John FitzGerald, 4th Lord of Offaly		Reward for support in Bruce invasion.
		c.1500	1534	Gearóid Mór FitzGerald, 8th Earl of Kildare?	Kildare	Real or de-facto? Robert Cowley "puts the beginning of the revived liberty in one place as 1506 and in another as 20o Henry VII (1504–5), but this may be too early by several years ... David Sutton says Carlow is to be taken as an adjunct to Kildare" William Skeffington was sent to Ireland with orders "the pretended lybertie of Kyldare shal cesse".
Liberty/Lordship of Thomond/Bunratty		1173	by 1185	Philip de Braose junior	Thomond; County Clare	Never captured from the O'Briens
		1201		William de Braose		liberty "recreated" by King John
		c.1276	1318	Thomas de Clare		"Short-lived"; Richard de Clare's son Thomas died in 1321; never really conquered. Hand p.131-2 describes; end at Dysert O'Dea. Potter says granted only for Thomas' lifetime (died 1287).
Liberty of Louth		1319	1329	John de Bermingham	County Louth	Otway-Ruthven p174; O-R says lapsed 1328; wp says Bermingham killed 1329; DIB says "As a reward for his success [at the Battle of Faughart] he was created earl of Louth at a parliament held at York on 12 May 1319, and was granted the county to hold as a liberty.... On 10 June [1329] he was murdered ... His earldom lapsed, and the liberty of Louth, though granted in tail male, was appropriated by Mortimer after his death.".
		June 1330	?Nov 1330?	Roger Mortimer		Smith p.118 "to acquire the liberty of Louth for himself" -- does this mean just the lands previously in the liberty or actually the full palatine rights? Apparently he was not made Earl of Louth? [Otway-Ruthven p175 says 1331 but he was dead by then] Hand p.132 says "after his [Bermingham's] murder in 1329, the liberty was united to that of the Mortimers [ie Trim?]."
Ormond Lordship / Tipperary		1328	1621	James Butler, 1st Earl of Ormond	County Tipperary	"County of the Liberty of Tipperary", excluding Cross Tipperary. Hand p.132 says 1315 attempted creation of earl of Carrick in three cantreds (ie smaller) for Butler's father.
		1662	1716	James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde		"Tipperary and Cross Tipperary", including the lands excluded from the earlier grant
Liberty/County Palatine of Kerry		1329	1579	Maurice FitzGerald, 1st Earl of Desmond	North Kerry	Suppressed after the Desmond Rebellions "From [the liberty of Kerry] [the Desmond palatinate jurisdiction] had spread by royal grant, by accretion, conquest and commendation over the honour of Any in Limerick and the honour of Dungarvan in Waterford, and almost the whole of county Cork. ... The Barrys, Roches, Courcys and other Anglo-Irish tenants-in-chief in south Munster had come to acknowledge him as their overlord, and in addition he had created a petty baronage of his own, mainly from among the junior branches of the Fitzgerald family."
Liberty of Cork		before 5 Jan 1395	by 1400	Edward, Earl of Rutland	County Cork	Created by Richard II. Extinct by Henry IV. the earldom was called "an empty Irish title" by Edmund Curtis.
Liberty of Desmond		1571	1606		South Kerry; West Cork (Bear)	Merged mostly into County Kerry, and partly to County Cork.
Liberty of Ferns		1578	1590		North Wexford	Existed only on paper, from the northern portion of county Wexford which had been denuded of settlers. Ferns was remerged back into Wexford.
(Lord of Connacht)		11xx	13xx	William de Burgh	Connacht	House of Burke feud split.
	Clanricarde	13xx	15xx		Galway	Definitively ended by 1570s Presidency, Composition, and shiring. I think these were never formally a liberty, merely a county that Clanricarde treated as a liberty. Quinn 1939 says [of period 1485-1534] "In Ulster the liberty had gone out of existence because there had been no resident lord to hold it together: in Connacht the lordship of the de Burgh had been continuous, but the fabric of administration which had characterised it as a feudal liberty had almost disappeared. [However,] The lords of Clanrickard became the hereditary representative of the crown in Connacht, and no attempt was made until Elizabethan times to prove that they were usurpers. They seem to have maintained fairly regularly a sheriff for the liberty."
	Mac William Íochtar	13xx	15xx		Mayo

Footnotes

Sources

• Bradshaw, Brendan (1979). The Irish Constitutional Revolution of the Sixteenth Century. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-22206-8.
• Crooks, Peter (2005). "'Divide and rule': factionalism as royal policy in the Lordship of Ireland, 1171–1265". Peritia. 19: 263–307. doi:10.1484/J.Peri.3.580. ISSN 0332-1592.
• Crooks, Peter (2017). "Comital Ireland, 1333–1534". In David, Crouch; Hugh, Doherty (eds.). The Earl in Medieval Britain. Woodbridge: Boydell Press. Retrieved 22 February 2019.
• Curtis, Edmund, ed. (1935). Calendar of Ormond Deeds. Vol. III (1413–1509). Dublin: Irish Manuscripts Commission. Retrieved 23 March 2022.
• Curtis, Edmund, ed. (1970) [1943]. "Appendix II. Royal inquisition into the Palatine powers of the Earl of Ormond". Calendar of Ormond Deeds. Vol. VI (1584–1603). Dublin: Irish University Press for the Irish Manuscripts Commission. pp. 147–150. ISBN 0-7165-0597-5. Retrieved 23 March 2022.
• Duffy, Seán, ed. (2005-01-15). Medieval Ireland: An Encyclopedia. Routledge. ISBN 9781135948238. esp. articles "Courts" and "Local government", but also articles on individual places and families
• Ellis, Steven G. (2015-05-07). Defending English Ground: War and Peace in Meath and Northumberland, 1460-1542. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199696291. Retrieved 2015-06-24.
• Empey, C. A. (1970). The Butler lordship in Ireland (Ph.D.). Dublin, Ireland: Trinity College Dublin Department of History. Retrieved 27 February 2019. [especially Section IV "The Government of the Lordship" pp.359–493]
• Flanagan, Marie Thérèse (2009). "Defining Lordships in Angevin Ireland: William Marshal and the king's justiciar". In Aurell, Martin (ed.). Les seigneuries dans l'espace Plantagenêt (c. 1150–c. 1250). Ausonius. pp. 41–59. doi:10.4000/books.ausonius.1877. ISBN 9782356132802. Retrieved 8 December 2020.
• Hand, G. J. (1967-09-02). "VI: Liberties and Franchises". English Law in Ireland 1290–1324. Cambridge Studies in English Legal History. CUP Archive. pp. 116–134. ISBN 9780521051941. Retrieved 14 July 2012.
• Hartland, Beth (2008-06-19). "The liberties of Ireland in the reign of Edward the First". In Prestwich, Michael (ed.). Liberties and Identities in the Medieval British Isles. Boydell Press. pp. 200–216. ISBN 9781843833741. Retrieved 11 July 2012.
• Quinn, D.B.; Nicholls, K.W. (2009-03-12) [1991]. "Ireland in 1534". Early Modern Ireland 1534-1691. A New History of Ireland. Vol. Volume III. Clarendon Press. pp. 1–38. ISBN 9780191623356. Retrieved 12 August 2013. {{cite book}}: |volume= has extra text (help)}
• MacCotter, Paul (2005). "Functions of the cantred in medieval Ireland" (PDF). Peritia. 19: 308–332. doi:10.1484/J.Peri.3.581. ISSN 0332-1592.
• Murnaghan, J. A. (March 1913). "THE LORDSHIP OF IRELAND AND THE COUNTIES PALATINE". Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review. 2 (5). Irish Province of the Society of Jesus: 846–859. JSTOR 25700926.
• Orpen, Goddard Henry. "The Earldom of Ulster". Journal of the Royal. Society of Antiquaries of Ireland.
  • Part I.: Introductory to the Inquisitions of 1333 Sixth Series, Vol. 3, No. 1 (Mar. 31, 1913), pp. 30-46
  • Part II. Inquisitions Touching Carrickfergus and Antrim (Continued) Sixth Series, Vol. 3, No. 2 (Jun. 30, 1913), pp. 133-143
  • [Part III. Inquisitions Touching Down and Newtownards (Continued)] Sixth Series, Vol. 4, No. 1 (Mar. 31, 1914), pp. 51-66
  • Part IV. Inquisitions Touching Coleraine and Military Tenures (Continued) Sixth Series, Vol. 5, No. 2 (Jun. 30, 1915), pp. 123-142
  • Part V. Inquisition Touching Le Wastyn (Castletown Kindalen), Co. Westmeath (Continued) Sixth Series, Vol. 10, No. 2 (Dec. 31, 1920), pp. 167-177
  • Part V. Inquisitions Touching Ratoath, in Co. Meath (Continued) Sixth Series, Vol. 11, No. 1 (Jun. 30, 1921), pp. 68-76
• Orpen, Goddard Henry (1911). Ireland Under the Normans 1169–1216. Vol. 1 1169–1177. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Retrieved 6 September 2016.
• Orpen, Goddard Henry (1911). Ireland Under the Normans 1169–1216. Vol. 2 1177–1216. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Retrieved 6 September 2016.
• Orpen, Goddard Henry (1920). Ireland Under the Normans 1216–1333. Vol. 3 1216–1272. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Retrieved 6 September 2016.
• Orpen, Goddard Henry (1920). Ireland Under the Normans 1216–1333. Vol. 4 1272–1333. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Retrieved 6 September 2016.
• Malcolm, John (2007). "Roger Bigod and the lordship of Carlow, 1266–1306". In Doran, Linda; Lyttleton, James (eds.). Lordship in Medieval Ireland: Image and Reality. Four Courts Press for the Group for the Study of Irish Historic Settlement. ISBN 9781846820410.
• Otway-Ruthven, Annette Jocelyn (March 1946). "Anglo-Irish Shire Government in the Thirteenth Century". Irish Historical Studies. 5 (17): 1–28. JSTOR 30007236.
• Otway-Ruthven, Annette Jocelyn (1980). A History of Medieval Ireland. E. Benn. pp. 172–. ISBN 9780510278007. Retrieved 11 July 2012.
• Potter, Matthew (September–October 2012). "Geographical loyalty: Counties, palatinates, boroughs and ridings". History Ireland. 20 (5).
• Quinn, David B. (September 1939). "Anglo-Irish Local Government, 1485-1534". Irish Historical Studies. Vol (4): 354–381. JSTOR 30006248. {{cite journal}}: |volume= has extra text (help)
• Stringer, Peter (2008-06-19). "States, liberties and communities in medieval Britain and Ireland". In Prestwich, Michael (ed.). Liberties and Identities in the Medieval British Isles. Boydell Press. pp. 5–36. ISBN 9781843833741. Retrieved 7 August 2013.
• Veach, Colin (November 2010). "King and magnate in medieval Ireland: Walter de Lacy, King Richard and King John". Irish Historical Studies. 37 (146): 179–202. doi:10.1017/S0021121400002212. Retrieved 18 June 2015.

Further reading

• Brown, Daniel (2016). Hugh de Lacy, First Earl of Ulster: Rising and Falling in Angevin Ireland. Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 978-1-78327-134-4. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
• Butler, W. F. (1913). "THE POLICY OF SURRENDER AND REGRANT I." JRSAI: 47-65 [esp p55 for Leinster division].
• Clarke, M. V. (1926). "Irish Parliaments in the Reign of Edward II". Transactions of the Royal Historical Society. 9: 29–62 : 40. doi:10.2307/3678393. ISSN 0080-4401. JSTOR 3678393.
• Davies, Sir John (1762). "The Case of the County Palatine of Wexford". A Report of Cases and Matters in Law: Resolved and Adjudged in the King's Courts in Ireland [ (Now first translated into English ed.). Sarah Cotter. pp. 159–184. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
  • translated from the Law French original: Davies, John (1674) [1615]. "Le Caſe del Countie Palatine de Wexford". Les reports des cases & matters en ley, resolves & adjudges en les courts del roy en Ireland. London: Printed by E. Flesher, J. Streater, and H. Twyford, assigns of Richard Atkyns and Edward Atkyns. pp. 58–68. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
• Delany, V. T. H. (1961). "The Palatinate Court of the Liberty of Tipperary". The American Journal of Legal History. 5 (2): 95–117. doi:10.2307/844115. JSTOR 844115.
• Ellis, S. G. (1981). "The Destruction of the Liberties: some Further Evidence". Historical Research. 54 (130): 150–161. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2281.1981.tb01224.x. ISSN 0950-3471. [much is re England, but cited in Irish sources]
• Falcon, W. Harris (August 1883). "The Irish Shrievalty". The Law magazine and review. 8 (4th series) (249): 427–440. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
• Foster, Robert Fitzroy (1992). The Oxford History of Ireland. Oxford University Press. pp. 58–9, 68–81. ISBN 9780192852717. Retrieved 7 August 2013.
• Lodge, John (c.1770). "List of the Members returned to serve in the Parliament of Ireland from the year 1559". Virtual Document Treasury of Ireland. pp. 1–3. NAI LODGE/20/1. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help) [introduction has pre-1559 constituencies lists similar to Lynch 1831 (1374Mar–74Nov–77–80–82), includes liberties and crosses]
• Lynch, William (1831). The Law of Election in the Ancient Cities and Towns of Ireland Traced from Original Records: With an Appendix of Documents. London: Effingham Wilson. pp. Table between pages 30 and 31. {{cite book}}: Invalid |no-pp=Y (help)
• Nugent, W. F. (1955). "Carlow in the Middle Ages". The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland. 85 (1): 62-76. JSTOR 25509198.
• Otway-Ruthven, A. J. (1967–68). "The Partition of the De Verdon Lands in Ireland in 1332". Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Section C: Archaeology, Celtic Studies, History, Linguistics, Literature. 66. Royal Irish Academy: 401–455. JSTOR 25505141.
• Otway-Ruthven, A. J. (March 1959). "The Medieval County of Kildare". Irish Historical Studies. 11 (43): 181–199. JSTOR 30005864.
• Potterton, Michael (June 2003). "The Liberty of Meath and the Lordship of Trim, 1172–1541". The Archaeology And History Of Medieval Trim, County Meath (PDF) (Ph.D.). Vol. I. NUI Maynooth. pp. 37–100. Retrieved 4 September 2018.
• Simington, Robert C., ed. (1945). "Introduction". Dublin. The Civil Survey AD 1654–56. Vol. Vol.VII. Irish Manuscripts Commission. pp. xxiii–xxv. {{cite book}}: |volume= has extra text (help)
  • Refers to 13 & 14 George III c.34 sec.37 for parishes of Dublin baronies
• Smith, Brendan (1999-04-22). Colonisation and Conquest in Medieval Ireland: The English in Louth, 1170-1330. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521573207. Retrieved 14 July 2012.
• Wood, Herbert (May 1932). "The Muniments of Edmund de Mortimer, Third Earl of March, concerning His Liberty of Trim". Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Section C: Archaeology, Celtic Studies, History, Linguistics, Literature. 40: 312–355. JSTOR 25515957.
• "Ireland: Territories". irelandbyways.com. p. sections "Liberties" and "Palatinates". Archived from the original on 21 June 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)

See also

• Regality Scottish equivalent