Kilkenny Castle, originally built in 1195 by the Normans as part of their attempted conquest of Ireland. The Statutes of Kilkenny, passed under Edward III, provoked an Irish reaction which might have extinguished the English presence in their land had the Irish not preferred to fight amongst themselves. Softened under Henry VII in 1494, the Statutes were conveniently forgotten when Sir Henry Sidney gathered the first collection of Irish Statutes in 1572, during the reign of Elizabeth I. They nevertheless remained on the law books until the Oireachtas (the Republic’s Houses of Parliament) repealed them by the Statute Law Revision Act of 1983.
Part 1 of 2
IT is ordained and established, that no alliance by marriage, gossipred,* fostering of children, concubinage or by amour, nor in any other manner, be henceforth made between the English and Irish of one part, or of the other part; and that no Englishman, nor other person, being at peace, do give or sell to any Irishman, in time of peace or war, horses or armour, nor any manner of victuals in time of war; and if any shall do to the contrary, and thereof be attainted, he shall have judgment of life and member, as a traitor to our lord the king.
Also, it is ordained and established, that every Englishman do use the English language, and be named by an English name, leaving off entirely the manner of naming used by the Irish; and that every Englishman use the English custom, fashion, mode of riding* and apparel, according to his estate.
* That is, the relations established by being a godparent at baptism. Ultimately from Old English godsibbræden, meaning ‘god-parental obligations’.
* The Irish did not use saddles.
Précis
In 1366, Edward III’s son Lionel of Clarence presided over a parliament in Kilkenny, which laid down rules governing the English in Ireland. The English were forbidden to form families with the Irish (even as godparents), to furnish them with anything they might use in their wars, to speak Irish, or to adopt Irish ways, from clothing to riding bareback. (59 / 60 words)
Part Two
This information board in Ballymore Eustace shows the extent of The Pale, the area around Dublin where English law applied: in the middle of the fourteenth century it included Dublin (on Ireland’s east coast), Louth, Meath, Trim, Kilkenny and Kildare, but by 1500 had shrunk considerably. The name, derived from an upright panel of a fence, came into use quite late; but an island of English control among the Irish had been there since the the Norman invasion of Ireland in 1169, policed from castles and marked by a ditch and hedge. There were other Pales, including the Pale of Calais; the phrase ‘beyond the Pale’ came to mean ‘completely unacceptable to decent people’.
And if any English, or Irish living amongst the English, use the Irish language amongst themselves, contrary to this ordinance, and thereof be attainted, his lands and tenements, if he have any, shall be seized into the hands of his immediate lord; until he shall come to one of the places of our lord the king, and find sufficient surety to adopt and use the English language, and then he shall have restitution of his said lands, by writ issued out of said places. In case that such person shall not have lands or tenements, his body shall be taken by any of the officers of our lord the king, and committed to the next gaol, there to remain until he, or some other in his name, shall find surety in the manner aforesaid.
And that no Englishman who shall have the value of one hundred pounds of land or of rent by the year, shall ride otherwise than on a saddle in the English fashion; and he that shall do to the contrary, and shall be thereof attainted, his horse shall be forfeited to our lord the king, and his body shall be committed to prison, until he pay a fine according to the king’s pleasure for the contempt aforesaid.
Précis
The Statutes stipulated than any man of property caught speaking Irish would see his lands confiscated until he had guaranteed his reformation, in English, before a court; lesser men would spend time in gaol. Any man of substance who rode Irish-style would forfeit his horse altogether, and be gaoled until he could satisfy the magistrates in the same manner. (59 / 60 words)
