justiciar

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justiciar, more properly ‘chief justiciar’, the normal title of the governor of Ireland from the late 12th to the mid‐14th centuries. It mirrored usage in England, where from the reign of Henry II until 1234 the justiciar was a bishop or magnate who headed the administration and ruled during royal absences. The justiciar of Ireland was administrator, military commander, and judge. The office was held sometimes by settler lords and sometimes by ecclesiastics, but from the mid‐13th century more commonly by English knights connected with the king's military household. By the later 13th century the justiciar received an annual salary of £500 from the Irish exchequer, from which he retained his own small military household, and presided over a court roughly equivalent to the English King's Bench. Except in emergencies, when a governor might be chosen by the Irish council, he was appointed by the king, who remained free to intervene in all matters, and usually forbade the justiciar to dismiss other high officials or to exercise rights of patronage above a certain value. In the late Middle Ages, the title of king's lieutenant was increasingly adopted for high‐born governors, and that of justiciar came to denote a stop‐gap appointment.

Robin Frame

justiciar. The frequent absences of Norman kings on the continent necessitated a competent viceroy or regent in England. This function became associated with the justiciar, who acted as chief minister, performing a great variety of duties, including campaigning, as well as presiding over the curia regis. Ranulf Flambard and Roger of Salisbury acted in this capacity under William Rufus and Henry I, without having the title: later the office was held by men of the calibre of Richard de Lucy, Ranulf Glanvill, Hubert Walter, Peter des Roches, and Hubert de Burgh. After de Burgh's overthrow by Henry III in 1232, the office lapsed, though the baronial opposition in the 1250s attempted to revive it. The legal duties were taken over by the chancellor or the lord chief justice. In Ireland the justiciar was the king's chief representative in the 13th cent. until superseded by the king's lieutenant, the lord deputy, and the lord-lieutenant. In Scotland the justiciar was the supreme law officer until replaced in the 15th cent. by the lord justice general.

J. A. Cannon

justiciar The frequent absences of Norman kings on the continent necessitated a competent viceroy or regent in England. This function became associated with the justiciar, who acted as chief minister, performing a great variety of duties, including campaigning, as well as presiding over the curia regis. Ranulf Flambard and Roger of Salisbury acted in this capacity under William Rufus and Henry I, without having the title: later the office was held by men of the calibre of Richard de Lucy, Ranulf Glanvill, Hubert Walter, Peter des Roches, and Hubert de Burgh. After de Burgh's overthrow by Henry III in 1232, the office lapsed. The legal duties were taken over by the chancellor or the lord chief justice.

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