176 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



Ulster to tlie Crown ; though the rebellion of the younger branch of 

 the Bui'kes, on the failure of heirs male of the elder, deprived the legal 

 title of the.Crown of all e:ffiective force. The union of all these terri- 

 tories in the Crown of England is incidentally recognised in an Act of 

 Parliament of Henry YII.'s reign CIO Henry YII., c. 15), which, 

 reciting that "the Earldoms of March, Ulster, the Lordships of Trim 

 and Connaught, bin annexed to our sovereign lord the King's most 

 noble Crown," makes provision for the better keeping of the records 

 of those ancient dignities, the title to which had been jeopardised 

 by the loss of the muniments. This Act expressly refers to " Eichard, 

 late Duke of Tork," as lord of Trim.^ 



The precise character of the jurisdiction conferred by King John on 

 the early Palatine counties of Ireland does not appear from any extant 

 documents. But if, as it seems reasonable to suppose, the later juris- 

 dictions conferred by Edward III. were similar in their general scope, 

 its nature may be gathered from the records of the Palatinate of 

 Tipperary. The process of Quo Warranto by which James I. resumed 

 possession of Tipperary enumerates the courts and offices which existed 

 at the beginning of the sixteenth century, and which, doubtless, 



1 Selden, in his " Titles of Honour " (third edition, p. 694), has a reference to 

 the use of the name and office of Palatine Earl in Ireland, which seems to 

 state the facts with great accm-acy : — " The title of local Earl Palatine, as -well as 

 of other Earls, occui's in the Kecords of that Kingdom. But I do not believe that 

 any man was ever created into the title of Count Palatine there, or the County 

 expressly made a County Palatine by Patent ; hut as in other countries, so here, 

 the enjoying of the title of earl (and sometimes of lord), together with a territory 

 annexed to that title, wherein all royal jurisdiction might be exercised, was the 

 original whence in speech and writing the title of Earl Palatine or Count Palatine 

 grew." This was written in 1614 ; and it is noteworthy that Selden's view as to 

 the title of Palatine is confirmed by the Patent of Charles II. to the Duke of 

 Ormond in 1660 for the County Tipperary. Tipperary was an undoubted Pala- 

 tinate ; yet neither the Patent nor the Act of 2 George I., cap. 8, by which it 

 was revoked, contains the term " Palatine " ; but they speak only of the regalities 

 and liberties of Tipperary. 



The extent and character of the privileges of a county palatine or liberty of 

 England appear by the Charter of Edward III. to John of Gaunt for the Palatinate 

 of Lancaster — a dignity which, owing to the prudent sagacity of Henry IV., has been 

 preserved in its ancient independence and prerogatives almost down to the present 

 day. Anxious that the hereditary honours of his dukedom should be secured to him, 

 even should fortune deprive him of a usurped crown, Henry, on attaining to the 

 throne, had an Act passed providing that the duchy of Lancaster should remain in 

 himself and his heirs in like manner as though he had never acceded to the royal 

 dignity. 



