Resumption, Acts of

Resumption, Acts of, a contentious feature of the politics of later medieval Ireland which may be set alongside taxation and absenteeism as an issue that helped to focus the developing political self‐awareness of the English of Ireland. Royal patronage was central to political life in the lordship of Ireland, just as in England; it involved everything from the granting of minor offices for life or a term of years, through charters enlarging town privileges, to hereditary grants of lands, earldoms, or liberty jurisdictions to magnates. In the later 15th century the revocation of earlier grants became a standard response to financial problems. It might also reflect, and cause, political instability. The Irish government was often the plaything of aristocratic faction, which from the outbreak of the Wars of the Roses might be aligned with the Lancastrians or Yorkists. It became common for a new governor to withdraw grants recently made, and redistribute them among his own supporters.

In the 14th century revocations had been less frequent, but were possibly more significant in political terms. The earliest was in 1331 when the government of the young Edward III, who had just shaken of the tutelage of Roger Mortimer, extended to Ireland the cancellation of grants made during his minority (1327–30). In his efforts to assert influence in Ireland, Mortimer had been lavish, creating the earldoms of Ormond (1328) and Desmond (1329) with the associated liberties of Tipperary and Kerry. The threat of revocation contributed to a confrontation in 1331–2 between Edward's justiciar, Anthony Lucy, and members of the settler aristocracy, including the Ist earl of Desmond. More spectacularly, in 1341—when his campaigns in France had collapsed for lack of funds— Edward ordered the revocation of all gifts made since his father's accession in 1307, apparently at the suggestion of a disgruntled member of the Dublin administration. This threatened virtually the entire colonial elite, who were specially incensed since it included the rewards given to magnates and towns for services during the Bruce invasion. There followed a general withdrawal of obedience from the Dublin government. A parliamentary assembly, meeting in the governor's absence, sent emissaries to the king loudly protesting the loyalty of the settlers; in April 1342 Edward withdrew the revocation. This episode is notable as one of the earliest instances of the English of Ireland acting collectively as a political community.

Bibliography

Ellis, S. G. , Reform and Revival: Englilsh Government in Ireland 1470–1534 (1986)
Frame, F. , English Lordship in Ireland 1318–1361 (1982)

Robin Frame