Falkixer — Parliament of Ireland under Tudor Sovereigns. 555 



to this list of the Irish Parliament of 1568, four others which relate 

 to Ireland,^ and contain some fresh information. 



Commaundre's list shows that the attendances at the Parliament of 

 1568-9 included twenty-four spii'itual and thirty -five temporal peers. 

 Of the latter, seven were earls, six yiscounts, and the remainder 

 iDarons. The attendance of the lords spiritual was, as we should 

 expect to find, larger than in the Parliament of 1560, and smaller 

 "than in that of 1585 ; but the temporal peers appeared in greatly 

 larger force in 1568-9 than in either of the other Parliaments of 

 Elizabeth. An analysis of their names would throw interesting light 

 •on the results of the policy of the Elizabethan viceroys in relation to 

 the chiefs of the great Irish septs. But for this we liave not time 

 to-day, for it is to the information which Commaundre gives as to 

 the forms of the meeting of Parliament that I wish to call attention. 



The Parliament met in Christ Church CathedraP under the pre- 

 sidency of Sir Henry Sidney, who united with the Viceroyalty of 

 Ireland the then splendid office of Lord President of Wales. This 

 illustrious father of an immortal son was perhaps one of the most 

 anagnificent personages who have ever held the sword of state in 

 this country, and was certain to omit no form which could add 



^ To the compiler's own description of himself as Rector of Tarporley and 

 Chaplain to Sir Henry Sidney, I can add but little information. Tarporley is a 

 small town about midway between Chester and Crewe, which lay directly on the 

 road from London to Holyhead, and through which, in the sixteenth century, as 

 •Commaundre records in some notes to a list of the Lord Lieutenants and Deputies 

 of Ireland, the Viceroys were in the habit of passing with their retinues on their 

 way to Ireland. "Whether or not it was in this way that Commaundre made the 

 acquaintance of Sir Henry Sidney, it is certain that he accompanied that nobleman 

 to Dublin, in 1568, in the capacity of chaplain, and was a witness of the proceedings 

 at the opening of the Parliament in Christ Church, on January 17 of that year. 

 He does not appear to have remained long in Ireland. Unlike a good many 

 viceregal chaplains of that age, he did not reach the Irish Episcopal Bench, but 

 died Rector of Tarporley, in 1613. He did, however, profit by the pluralism 

 which was so common in his time, being appointed Rector and Prebendary of 

 the Parish of Kilmactalway, County Dublin, and Vicar of Bodenstown, County 

 Kildare. But that Commaundre did not account the personal charge of these 

 cures as necessarily obligatory on him, appears from a bond executed on March 14, 

 1570-1, wherein he acknowledges himself indebted to one John Thomas in the 

 sum of £100, in consideration whereof he made over to Thomas for the term 

 of his own life both the parsonage of Kilmactalway, with its prebend, and the 

 vicarage of Bodenstown "frank and free, without payment of any rent." — 

 Morrin's Calendar of Patent and Close Rolls in Ireland, ii. 639. 



- See as to the place of meeting, p. 520, supra, note. 



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