340 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



mistake, as the Order of the Templars was confirmed in 1128, and 

 that of the Hospitallers in 1113. Probably what the Annalists 

 intended to convey was that in 1183 Pope Lucius confirmed them in 

 the privileges granted by Pope Alexander. As far as Ireland is 

 concerned, one single incident, narrated by Matthew of Paris, is the 

 only evidence we have of their mixing themselves up in the national 

 struggles, and in this case they only acted as mediators. He tells us 

 that Earl Eichard, on being informed of the hostility which the 

 Anglo-Norman nobles were manifesting towards him, came over in 

 person, in 1234, to meet his enemies. The Templars, who acted as 

 negotiators in the matter, were instructed, on the part of the nobles, 

 to inform the earl that they (the nobles) had taken up arms against 

 him on account of his treacherous behaviour towards the King, and 

 that they desired to learn from the King how he wished them to act, 

 as he had committed the defence of the country to them. Both 

 parties met at the Curragh of Kildare to hold a conference, which 

 resulted in a combat, when the earl was mortally wounded. ^ Sir John 

 Gilbert, indeed, in his History of the Viceroys, tells us that, in 1274, 

 Guillaume fitzEoger, Master of the Knights of the Temple in Ireland, 

 was taken prisoner in an engagement at Glenmalure with the Irish, 

 who slew numbers of his companions in arms.- This, however, is an 

 error, as Guillaume fitzEoger was Prior of the Hospitallers, and it was 

 those Knights who su:ffered such a reverse. 



If the Templars left little record of themselves in the national 

 struggles which distracted Ireland at that time, the same cannot be 

 said of them in the legal contests of tlie period. The records are full 

 of entries of cases to which the Knights were parties, in connexion 

 with the right of presentation to churches, pleas of land, and other 

 matters. The entries on the records are most tantalizing, as they are 

 often mere notes of appointment of attorneys by either party to the 

 suit. Doubtless, if all the plea rolls had been preserved, we should 

 have been able to obtain a fairly extensive knowledge of the pro- 

 ceedings, as in some cases which we possess there is a full account of 

 the pleadings. In 1253 they had a dispute about the advowson of 

 the chapel of Eallygaveran.^ They also contested the right of pre- 

 sentation to the ciiapel of Balliscarva with the Archbishop of Cashel. 



1 Mat. Paris, Chronica Mag., vol. iii., p. 274. 



2 Gilbert's History of the Viceroys of Ireland, p. 123. 

 Close Eoll (Eng.), 38 Henry III, m. 13d. 



