Catalogue description A complaint from the Lords and Commons of Ireland to King Henry 6, against James Butler, Earl of Ormond.

All the Lords Spiritual and Temporal of the said land and the Commons of the same in your Parliament holden at Dublin the Friday next after the feast of St. Martin in winter last past were fully advised and assented that I and my fellow messengers for the said land should desire of your sovereign lord[ship] to ordain a mighty lord of this your realm of England for to be your Lieutenant of the said land; that time being there present the Earl of Ormond as Deputy to the Lord Wells, then your Lieutenant there.

Please it your Highness to be informed how that if it had been seen good and profitable for you and for your said land for to have had the said Earl your Lieutenant, he should have been named at the said Parliament; doing you to understand that they all, both the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons there assembled, considered in their wisdoms, that it was most expedient to your sovereign lord[ship] to have to your Lieutenant there a lord of birth, of this noble realm, whom your people there will more favour and obey, than any man of that land's birth; for men of this realm kept better justice, execute your laws, and favour more the common people there, and ever have done before this time, better than ever did any man of that land, or ever is like to do.

May it may please your Highness to consider, how that it behoveth that he, that should be your Lieutenant there, be mighty, courageous, and a laborious man to keep the field, and to make resistance ever against your enemies, in comfort and supportation of your true liege people there. And none of these be seen or found in the said Earl, for both he is aged, unwieldy and unlusty, for he hath, for lack of labor, lost in snbstance, all his castles, towns, and lordships that he had within your said land; wherefore it is not likely that he should keep, conquer, ne get any ground to your sovereign lord[ship], that thus hath lost his own.

Moreover, pleaseth you to wit, that at divers Parliaments (when the said Earl hath had the rule there) he hath made and ordered Irishmen (grooms and pages of his household) knights of the shire, the which would not in no wise assent to no good thing that should profit and avail to your sovereign lord[ship]; and also hath suffered divers lords, spiritual and temporal, to absent them from the Parliament heretofore, taking from them great fines to his singular avail, where the profit should be yours.

Also, afore this time, when the said Earl stood your Lieutenant, he took the Prior of Cullen, one of the Lords of your Parliament there, and sent him to O'Dempsie's castle, that is an Irishman and your enemy, the which put him in great duresse of prison, and ransomed him at 100 marks, without any reasonable cause. And likewise made to be imprisoned in the lands of your enemies Jenkin Galan, one of the citizens of your city of Dublin, and David Shemais, gentleman, and ransomed each of them at 10l.; and one Nicholas Cabbarry, likewise ransomed at 100 marks.

Also, pleaseth you to consider, how at the last departure of the Lord Wells out of your land, it was desired by the substance of the gentills and commons of the said land, that the said Earl should be in no wise his Deputy, because of his great rigour, and breaking of peace, that they dread him to do the like that he had done before time; whereupon at last he was bound by indenture tripartite to keep the peace and be of good rule during the time that he were Deputy to the said Lieutenant. And sithe it is so, he [Sic.] feebleness of rule was so much dread to be Deputy, it is to be supposed, he were more to be dread, if he were your Lieutenant, and had rule himself.

Also, please it your Highness to be remembered how that afore this time, my Lord of Marche, my Lord Gray, (whose souls God assoyle,) and my Lord Talbot, that have been Lieutenants of your said land, have afore this time appeached the said Earl, severally, of many great treasons, the which stand yet undetermined; the which is a great proof, that the said Earl hath not been of good rule, and unable to have your said land in governance.

Also, there been many and divers other great things misdone by the said Earl, which I may not declare, because of mine order; for declaration of which, please it your Highness to do come before you, the Lord Wells, the Baron of Dudley, Sir Thomas Stanley, sometimes Lieutenants of your said land, Giles Thornton, your Treasurer there, and others that have borne and bear offices there, charging them, by the faith they owe to God and you, to report to your Highness the rule of the said Earl done for the time that they have stood officers there.

Also please it your Highness, the premises considered, to discharge the said Earl of the said office of Lieutenant, and to direct a commission to certain commissioners, to inquire within your said land of the matters comprised within the said articles, and of the rule and governance that the said Earl hath been of, in the time that he hath stood Lieutenant there, heretofore, over that as is rehearsed above; and thereupon to certify you by writing (under the Great Seal of that kingdom) as they find by inquisitions. And so you may have clear knowledge, whether it be for your profit and avail, for the ease and welfare of your land, that the said Earl be your Lieutenant there or not. And the said Earl must be discharged before the said inquisitions be taken, for he hath so rigorously intreated your poor of your said land before this time, that they dare not say the truth while that he standeth your Lieutenant there, without that he be first discharged; lest that, for their soothsaying, he would be more rigorous to them hereafter than he was unto them before, the which they might not bear.

Headed: "Anno 20 Hen. VI.

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