222 Proceedings of the Roj/al Irish Acadetm/. 



Talbot's most formidable oppoueut was his kinsman, Lord Ormonde, the 

 fourth earl ; and now one, then the other, was supreme. Within a period 

 of twenty-eight years, Talbot was head of the Irish Government, either 

 as Justiciar or as Lord Deputy, six times, and Ormonde live times. Talbot 

 was in command for ten or eleven years in all.' In tlie Dublin Parliament 

 of 1441 a petition was drawn up, requesting the king to appoint an English 

 peer as viceroy instead of Ormonde ; and it is siginlicant tiiat the Archbishop 

 (with the abbot of St. Mary's, Dublin), was requested to take charge of it.- 

 These unedifying and unfortunate quarrels continued for years, neither party 

 yielding to the other. 



The custody of the Great Seal was a frequent topic of controversy. In 

 1432 Talbot refused to give it up to Thomas Chace, the newly appointed 

 Chancellor, on the plea that the letters patent which Cliace produced before 

 the Lord Deputy were not suHiciently explicit.' And in 1442 Ormonde, as 

 Lord Lieutenant, refused to deliver the seals to Talbot, who was llien Chan- 

 cellor, because Talbot refused to produce his letters patent.* The upshot of 

 this was that tl»e Archbishop was superseded in the Chancellorship ; and 

 whether (Jrniomle was, teclniically, riglil or wrong, it it evident that neillier 

 man was of a conciliatory liisposition. They were both summoned to England 

 to answer for their conduct in 1442 and 1443, but nothing definite was 

 arranged by way of compromise.' The only literary work ascribed to Talbot 

 is a conlroversial treatise on the abuses of Ormonde's administration." 



Enough has been sjiid already to siiow that the Archbishop was fully 

 occupied witli state business during his long tenure of ofhce. He seems to 

 have taken a special interest in the buildings of Dublin Castle. We have a 

 deed of 14.S0 in which, as Judiciar. lie granted 20 marks annually for the 

 repair of the hall and toweifl of the castle, which had been damaged by storm, 

 to the injury of legal records preserved there.' And in the next year, for some 

 unrecorded reason, he descended in force upon the castle, dted the Constable 



' The Archbishop's terms of office were: 22 July, 1419, to 10 Feb., 1420 ; 4 Aug., 1423, 

 to 1424 : 1430 to 1432 ; 14.% to 1440 ; 144.5 to 1440 ; and 1447 to 5 .July, 144t). when 

 Richard Plaiitagcnct, Duke of York, became Lord Lieutenant. 



' Nicolas' .^c(4 of the Priry Councii, v. czliiiff. ; see also Gilbert, Charters of Si. Mary' 

 Abbey, i. xliv, 379. 



' Tresham, Chancery RolU, p. 253. 



• Graves, King's Comicti in Ireland, pp. 295-30.3. 



' Nicolas, I.e. V. cl, 250. 



' Ware gives its title : " De abusu regiminis Jacobi Comitis Ormoniae, dum esset 

 locum teaeris Hibeminc." 



' .See Whitelaw and Walsh, History of Dublin, i, 53, and Gilbert's Viceroys of Ireland, 

 p. 569. 



