§ I. Introduction.
In all the habits of social life many of the early English settlers in Ireland soon became more Irish than the Irish themselves. In the vigorous tenacity of their attachment to the Catholic religion some of these families have ever remained as Irish as the Irish themselves. Having made our people their people, they became sharers in our grace of faith, so as to keep ever since our God their God. To the Talbots and the Plunkets we owe two [pg 487] great archbishops, whose figures stand out prominently even among the illustrious band of prelates who fought the good fight in the days of the persecutors. And as our Church reckons Anglo-Irish bishops among her martyrs, so among her doctors who guarded and enriched the sacred deposit of faith we may count Anglo-Irish prelates equally illustrious: and of these the subject of the present notice offers a distinguished example. A variety of great qualities, rarely united in one individual, gives a singular attractiveness to the history of Richard Fitz-Ralph, Archbishop of Armagh. Extraordinary holiness of life—of which proof remains not only in the popular couplet at the head of this paper, and in the appellation of St. Richard of Dundalk, by which he was known for centuries, but in the stronger evidence of a Pontifical commission issued by Boniface IX. to examine into his miracles with a view to his canonization;—rare intellectual power exhibited in every branch of theology—erudition both various and profound—eloquence of a high order, to which his sermons still extant bear testimony; all these are qualities which, especially when exercised under the trying vicissitudes of a great controversy within the Church, could not fail to constitute a remarkable career. Of this career we now propose to lay before our readers an outline as perfect as the materials within our reach will allow us to sketch. We do so with the hope that others, in whom better skill is backed by richer materials, may be led to supplement from their store our slender contribution to the history of an illustrious successor of St. Patrick.
§ II. The Fitz-Ralph Family: Richard's Parentage.
Ralph, founder of the Fitz-Ralph family, held forty-nine lordships in England in the reign of William the Conqueror. From this stem various branches issued, and several families of Fitz-Ralphs were to be found in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. To which of these Richard belongs is a matter of uncertainty. Prince, in his anxiety to enrol him among the worthies of Devonshire, refers him to the Fitz-Ralphs of Widecomb in the Moor, who, about the time of Edward I., changed their names and residence, henceforth calling themselves Stillingford, from their new abode near Exeter. But this is mere guess work. It is far more probable, in our opinion, that he belonged to the Derbyshire Fitz-Ralphs, of which family the Frechevilles and Musards of Staveley[33] became in after times the representatives. Our reasons are these. Ralph (Musard) Baron Staveley, a direct descendant of Ralph, the founder of the family, had a daughter Margaret, who, on his death, became co-heir with her brother [pg 488] Nicholas and her sister Isabella. Margaret married an Irishman, named in the pedigree Joannes de Hibernia, and died in the year 1308. Three children were born of this marriage—John de Hibernia, Ralph, and Alicia. Thus, we actually have the heir of the Fitz-Ralphs born of an Irish father. As his mother's heir John de Hibernia was owner of the third part of the manor of Staveley, and this property he gave and granted to Ralph de Frecheville, The evidence taken at an inquisition held at Staveley, in 1316, asserts that the said John “had no other lands in England”. This would lead us to conjecture that he had lands in Ireland, and after this time the pedigree no longer adds the words de Hibernia to any of the Fitz-Ralphs. Now, it is certain that Richard must have been born about this time; and although the precise year of his birth is not known, the date of his promotion to Armagh would allow him to have been the son of this John, or of his brother Ralph. But, setting conjecture aside, one thing is proved beyond a doubt, viz., that about the time of Richard's birth the Fitz-Ralphs of Staveley had a close connection with Ireland.