Sir James Keating (died c.1491) was an Irish cleric and statesman of the fifteenth century. He was Prior of the Irish house of the Knights Hospitallers at Kilmainham, and a member of the Privy Council of Ireland. Despite his political eminence he was a man of ruthless character and violent temper who once tried to murder a senior judge, and was responsible for the death of his intended replacement as Prior. After a long and turbulent career he was removed from office for his treason in supporting the Lambert Simnel Rebellion of 1487, and died in poverty.[1]
The Privy Council of Ireland was an institution of the Kingdom of Ireland until 31 December 1800 and of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 1801 to 1922. It performed a similar role in the Dublin Castle administration in Ireland to that of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom in the government of the United Kingdom.
Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. This state of mind may, depending upon the jurisdiction, distinguish murder from other forms of unlawful homicide, such as manslaughter. Manslaughter is a killing committed in the absence of malice, brought about by reasonable provocation, or diminished capacity. Involuntary manslaughter, where it is recognized, is a killing that lacks all but the most attenuated guilty intent, recklessness.
A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and, typically, in an open court. The judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility and arguments of the parties, and then issues a ruling on the matter at hand based on his or her interpretation of the law and his or her own personal judgment. In some jurisdictions, the judge's powers may be shared with a jury. In inquisitorial systems of criminal investigation, a judge might also be an examining magistrate.
He was born in Bree, County Wexford. Little is known of his early life. He joined the Order of Knights Hospitallers, rose rapidly through its ranks and in 1461 became Prior of the Order's Irish house at Kilmainham.[2]
Bree is a village located in the centre of County Wexford, in Ireland.
Kilmainham is a suburb of Dublin, Ireland, south of the River Liffey and west of the city centre, in the Dublin 8 postal district.
Attempted murder of Robert Dowdall
Soon after his appointment as Prior, he committed a crime which might well have ended his career and his life. At Pentecost 1462 Sir Robert Dowdall, the Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas, came on a pilgrimage to Kilmainham. Keating attacked him with a sword and appears to have had every intention of killing him.[3] The motive for the attack is unknown, although crimes of violence, even among the ruling class, were not uncommon in that era: twenty years earlier another senior Irish judge, James Cornwalsh, Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer, had been murdered, but his killers were pardoned for the crime.[4] Keating was not the first Prior of Kilmainham to have a reputation for lawlessness: Thomas FitzGerald, who was removed from office as Prior in 1447, was another turbulent and litigious individual, who clashed with James Butler, 4th Earl of Ormonde and more seriously with Sir William Welles, the Lord Chancellor of Ireland, whom he was accused of kidnapping.
The Christian holy day of Pentecost, which is celebrated fifty days after Easter Sunday, commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and other followers of Jesus Christ while they were in Jerusalem celebrating the Feast of Weeks, as described in the Acts of the Apostles.
Sir Robert Dowdall was an Irish judge who held the office of Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas for more than forty years. He is mainly remembered today for the murderous assault on him by Sir James Keating, the Prior of Kilmainham, in 1462.
A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about the self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, after which the pilgrim returns to their daily life.
Keating was arrested and arraigned for trial before Parliament on a number of charges including attempted murder, but the charges were dropped on condition that he pay Dowdall 100 marks in damages (although it seems that he never actually did so). He probably owed his immunity from punishment to the influence of the powerful Anglo-Irish magnate Thomas FitzGerald, 7th Earl of Kildare, who acted as Keating's patron.
Attempted murder is a crime of attempt in various jurisdictions.
At common law, damages are a remedy in the form of a monetary award to be paid to a claimant as compensation for loss or injury. To warrant the award, the claimant must show that a breach of duty has caused foreseeable loss. To be recognised at law, the loss must involve damage to property, or mental or physical injury; pure economic loss is rarely recognised for the award of damages.
Thomas FitzJohn FitzGerald, 7th Earl of Kildare, was an Irish peer and statesman of the fifteenth century who held the office of Lord Chancellor of Ireland.
Prior of Kilmainham
For the next few years he seems to have run the Order smoothly enough. He was later accused of bankrupting the Irish house: in his defence he pointed out that in 1467 his superiors in Rhodes had increased the annual payment due to them from Kilmainham from £40 to £70 without consulting him. He argued that the increase took no account of the Irish house's ability to pay, and insisted that he had been simply unable to find the extra money.[5]
Politics
As Prior of Kilmainham he was entitled to sit in the Parliament of Ireland and on the Irish Privy Council, and was thus able to play a key role in Irish politics. During the Wars of the Roses, the dynastic struggle between the rival branches of the Plantagenet dynasty, Keating in common with almost all the Anglo-Irish nobility favoured the House of York over the rival House of Lancaster. The victory of York over Lancaster in the year Keating became Prior for a time increased his political standing. However he was in temporary disgrace when in 1467 King Edward IV sent the notoriously ruthless John Tiptoft, 1st Earl of Worcester (nicknamed "The Butcher of England") to be Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.[6] Worcester held a Parliament at Drogheda where he proceeded to deal mercilessly with those whom he regarded as his political enemies, including the Earl of Kildare, who fled abroad, and Keating, who was imprisoned.[7]
The Parliament of Ireland was the legislature of the Lordship of Ireland, and later the Kingdom of Ireland, from 1297 until 1800. It was modelled on the Parliament of England and from 1537 comprised two chambers: the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The Lords were members of the Irish peerage and bishops. The Commons was directly elected, albeit on a very restricted franchise. Parliaments met at various places in Leinster and Munster, but latterly always in Dublin: in Christchurch Cathedral, Dublin Castle, Chichester House (1661–1727), the Blue Coat School (1729–31), and finally a purpose-built Parliament House on College Green.
The Wars of the Roses were a series of English civil wars for control of the throne of England fought between supporters of two rival cadet branches of the royal House of Plantagenet: the House of Lancaster, associated with the Red Rose of Lancaster, and the House of York, whose symbol was the White Rose of York. Eventually, the wars eliminated the male lines of both families. The conflict lasted through many sporadic episodes between 1455 and 1487, but there was related fighting before and after this period between the parties. The power struggle ignited around social and financial troubles following the Hundred Years' War, unfolding the structural problems of bastard feudalism, combined with the mental infirmity and weak rule of King Henry VI which revived interest in the House of York's claim to the throne by Richard of York. Historians disagree on which of these factors to identify as the main reason for the wars.
The House of York was a cadet branch of the English royal House of Plantagenet. Three of its members became kings of England in the late 15th century. The House of York was descended in the male line from Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York, the fourth surviving son of Edward III, but also represented Edward's senior line, being cognatic descendants of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, Edward III's second surviving son. It is based on these descents that they claimed the English crown. Compared with the House of Lancaster, it had a senior claim to the throne of England according to cognatic primogeniture but junior claim according to the agnatic primogeniture. The reign of this dynasty ended with the death of Richard III of England at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485. It became extinct in the male line with the death of Edward Plantagenet, 17th Earl of Warwick, in 1499.
Lord Grey as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
His fortunes improved greatly after the House of Lancaster, which had briefly regained the throne in 1470-1, was finally crushed at the Battle of Tewkesbury. Among the defeated Lancastrians who were executed for treason after Tewkesbury was Sir John Langstrother, Prior of the English Hospitallers. [8]Keating by contrast was commended by the victorious Yorkists for his loyalty to their cause.
In 1478 however he clashed again with the English Crown when King Edward, to strengthen his authority, sent Lord Grey of Codnor to Ireland as Lord Lieutenant. The Anglo-Irish nobles, led by Gerald FitzGerald, 8th Earl of Kildare and his father-in-law Baron Portlester, simply refused to recognize his authority: [9] Keating who had assumed the role of Constable of Dublin Castle, apparently without any legal authority,[10] played a key role in these events by refusing Lord Grey entry to the Castle. [11]After a few months of political deadlock, the King yielded and Grey returned to England, leaving Keating and his allies triumphant.[12]
Prior Marmaduke Lumley
Siege of Rhodes 1480
The next threat to his position came from his own superiors in Rhodes, who were outraged by his refusal to give any assistance to the beleaguered Order against the Ottoman Empire during the Siege of Rhodes in 1480. In 1482 he was removed from office and replaced by an English member of the Order, Marmaduke Lumley, who obtained Papal approval for his election. [13] Keating however was not a man to submit meekly to such a decision, and when Lumley landed at Clontarf, Dublin, Keating led a large force which captured and imprisoned him, and later put him in chains. Both the Papal Legate, Octavio de Palatio, and the Archbishop of Dublin, John Walton, expressed their outrage at Keating's conduct and demanded Lumley's release. In 1484 they sent a troop of soldiers to free him, but Keating, who was a trained soldier like all his Order, easily defeated the opposing force. Lumley died in prison soon after.[14] Keating was excommunicated for his actions, but true to his stubborn character, simply ignored the excommunication.[15]
Lambert Simnel
Lambert Simnel in Ireland
The downfall of the House of York at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, and the establishment of the Tudor dynasty under King Henry VII came as unwelcome news to the pro-Yorkist Anglo-Irish nobility. Led by the Earl of Kildare and his father-in-law Lord Portlester, they refused to accept the new dynasty, and their resistance to Henry led to Keating's ultimate ruin.[16] In 1487 Kildare, Portlester, Keating and their allies made the mistake of supporting the claims of the pretenderLambert Simnel, who claimed to be Edward Plantagenet, 17th Earl of Warwick, the rightful heir of the House of York.[17] Simnel was an imposter, but is known to have born a striking resemblance to the real Warwick, who was a prisoner in the Tower of London, where he remained until his execution in 1499. Simnel was proclaimed King Edward VI and crowned in Dublin. He invaded England with a large army, only to be crushed at the Battle of Stoke Field.[18]
Keating's ruin
Henry VII was remarkably merciful in victory: Simnel became a royal servant, and almost all of the Anglo-Irish nobility received a royal pardon. The one notable exception was Keating, whose record of violence, and defiance both of the Crown and his own superiors, made it impossible for the King to trust him.[19] Sir Richard Edgcumbe, the Crown official sent to Ireland accept the submission of the Anglo- Irish nobility, chose to regard him as the "prime instigator" of the rebellion, although most historians attach more importance to the role of the Earl of Kildare and his father-in-law Lord Portlester. Despite repeated pleas to Edgcumbe on Keating's behalf he was refused a pardon and deprived of office once more. Showing all his old stubbornness, he refused to leave Kilmainham, but was finally ejected in 1491. He died in poverty soon afterwards.[20]
Sources
Ball, F. Elrington The Judges in Ireland 1221-1921 London John Murray 1926
Brenan, M. J. Ecclesiastical History of Ireland Dublin John Coyne 1840
Chrimes, S. B. Henry VII Yale University Press 1999
Otway-Ruthven, A. J. History of Medieval Ireland New York Barnes and Noble reissue 1993
Ross, Charles Edward IV Eyre Methuen Ltd. 1994
Weir, Alison York and Lancaster-the Wars of the Roses Arrow Books 1996
Wright, G.N. Historical Guide to the City of Dublin London Baldwin Cradock and Joy 1825
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