220 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academt/. 



nominee, John Swayiie, became Primate of All Ireland. However, in 1417, 

 the Archbishopric of Dublin became vacant, and Talbof was put forward, 

 duly elected,' provided by the pope, and consecrated in 1418.° "Where the 

 consecration took place is not known ; but, as there is no record of it 

 in the English episcopal registers, the place was, perhaps, Dublin, where 

 Archbishop Talbot was at the centre of public business for the rest of his 

 life. He crossed to Ireland in his broll)er"s company on v^nd May, 141S.' 



The first notice of his work iu Ireland is in connexion wiih military 

 operations. In July, 141H, his brotlier, the Lord liieutenant, having gone 

 to England (he never returned to Irelantl), tlie Archbisliop was appointed his 

 deputy ; and in iluil capacity lie inade a military excursion, in the course of 

 which, according to the Clnouicle of Henry of Marleburgh, " thirty of the 

 Irish " were slain. Tliis was not so e.xtraordiiiary as it would seem to the 

 modern mind. His predecessor. Archbishop Cranley, had marched at tlie 

 head of his troops, and killed ii hundred Irish at Kilkea : and about tlie same 

 time, the Archbishop of York (Henry Boweit, wbo iiad formerly been Dean 

 of St. Pairick'.sj led the English army against tiie Scots, wlieu Henry V was 

 in France. Kichard Talbot came of a figluing stock, and he was always more 

 of a soldier or a lawyer than an ecclesia.stic.* In 1427 lie raised a foice of 

 meu-at-arms and archei-s, for the defeuce of the marches of Dulilin against 

 the Irish, ami receiveil the usual monetary grant in return from the 

 Treasury.' 



There never wa-s a time when Ireland needed a strong, wise, and impartial 

 goverument more sorely tiiau at this period of Irish history. The descendants 

 of the great Anglo-Norinau kiiighu who came over with Henry II had become 

 jealous of eacii otiier. and were continually iiuarrelling among themselves, as 

 well as with the native population. And tiie Irish iiad taken full advantage 

 of the preoccupation of England with tiie French wars, which prevented due 

 attention from being paid to the development of the resources of Ireland and 



' His elevation is noted in Elmhain's Liber Melrietu de Henrico V° : 

 " Kicardus Talbot fert Dublinensis honorem 

 Mctrupolis, Praesui cuiiditiouc valeiia." 

 See Memorials of Henry V, p. 103 (Rolls Scries). 



' He was provided by a Papal Letter of dato 20th December. 1417, and the faculty 

 . for consecration was issued 3lNt January. 1418. 



^ Pat. Rolls (see Wylie, Iifi<jn of Henry V, ji. 07). 



' Canon Bannister tells me that in 140.5, Prince Henry, assisted by a Talbot force 

 from Goodrich, which may well have included the future Archbishop, defeated Owen 

 Glendower's army at Grosmont, twelve miles south of Hereford. 



' Tresham's Chancery UolU, pp. 243, 244. 



