Poynings's law

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Poynings's law, 1494. Sir Edward Poynings served as lord deputy in Ireland from 1494 to 1496. A parliament summoned at Drogheda in December 1494 declared that the English Privy Council must approve the summoning of any Irish parliament and agree to legislation, and that English laws applied to Ireland. Despite Irish protests, the position was reaffirmed by 6 Geo. I c. 5 in 1719 which stated that Ireland ‘is and of right ought to be subordinate unto and dependent upon the imperial crown of Great Britain’ and that the Irish House of Lords had no appellate jurisdiction. Poynings's Act was not repealed until 1782, when the Rockinghams conceded Irish legislative independence.

J. A. Cannon

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Poynings's law

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