A Parliament in Dublin
The presence of a deputy, however, always had an irritating effect upon the English colonists, and when in 1382 Richard II. ordered a Parliament to meet in Dublin, its first act was to protest against the absence of the viceroy. To satisfy the nobles and prelates the king appointed Philip de Courtenay, a cousin of his, viceroy for life. The commission was drawn up in 1385, but it was not until two years later that de Courtenay landed in Ireland. His reign was brief and stormy. The two great Anglo-Irish families, the Desmonds and the Ormondes, were in conflict, and the Irish were besieging and harassing the colonists. De Courte was not the man for the occasion. He was charged with oppression and extortion, and the king, who had already made up his mind to make his favourite, de Vere, Earl of Oxford, Viceroy of Ireland, gladly accepted the accusations against de Courtenay, and ordered him to remain under arrest in Dublin until the arrival of his successor, who would investigate the charges against his character. De Courtenay appealed to the Council in Dublin, and they declared the accusations to be unjust.
The Throne Room, Dublin Castle
The appointment of de Vere to the viceroyalty was an outcome of the struggle between Richard II. and his Barons. De Vere was the reigning favourite, and when it was proposed that he should be sent to Ireland as viceroy, the nobles enthusiastically endorsed the selection, and, glad to be rid of him at any price, cheerfully voted supplies. Richard created his creature Marquis of Dublin, and allowed him to nominate Sir John de Stanley as his deputy. It was not de Vere's intention to proceed to Ireland, and under various pretexts he avoided assuming personal control of the Irish government. Meanwhile Richard had created him Duke of Ireland, and entrusted him with powers almost regal, at one time actually proposing to make him King of Ireland. When the nobles rebelled against Richard, de Vere raised an army on behalf of his king, but was defeated in his first encounter with the barons. He died abroad after the five judges, who had supported Richard in his attempt to make de Vere King of Ireland, were brought to trial for having declared that the king was above the law, and were punished by being exiled to Ireland! Richard, weak-minded and unreliable, was at least faithful to de Vere, and he had his favourite's corpse brought from Louvain, and interred to the accompaniment of magnificent ceremonies at Colne Priory in Essex.
Richard II. arrives
From 1387 to 1389 the government was again in the hands of Alexander de Balscot, Bishop of Meath, who was assisted by Richard White, Prior of Kilmainham. Then Sir John de Stanley came back until 1391, and was succeeded by James le Botiller, third Earl of Ormonde. During Ormonde's term of office the king's uncle, Thomas Plantagenet, Duke of Gloucester, was nominated Viceroy of Ireland, but the commission was quickly revoked. Richard had decided to visit Ireland in person, and thus an English monarch again prepared a great army with which to conquer Ireland. The king landed at Waterford on October 13, 1394, accompanied by the Duke of Gloucester. Ormonde soon joined him, and the Irish were engaged in battle. If the English king cherished any hopes that his deeds in Ireland might secure his tottering throne in England he was doomed to grievous disappointment. He was defeated every time he joined battle with the natives, and in the end he was compelled to withdraw to Dublin and pass Christmas there. A further series of reverses followed, and Richard decided to have recourse to arbitration and conciliation. The Irish chieftains and nobles responded, and by means of various concessions Richard was enabled to return to England with at least a remnant of his army.
The viceroy was now Roger de Mortimer, Earl of March, cousin to Richard and heir to the throne of England. De Mortimer had been viceroy in his youth, but not until this appointment—in 1395—did he rule in person. In 1398 de Mortimer was killed in battle while leading his soldiers, a tragedy which paved the way for Richard's deposition and the accession of Henry IV., and created the motive that led to the Wars of the Roses. John de Colton, now Archbishop of Armagh, again acted as temporary Governor while the Council proceeded to elect Reginald Grey of Ruthyn, whose appointment, however, was vetoed by Richard. His nominee was Thomas Holland, Duke of Surrey, who entered Dublin in 1399. Surrey's chief object was to people Ireland with English settlers, a plan that was to be tried again some 200 years later. The viceroy could not carry out his plan for dispossessing the Irish, and he appealed to Richard for help, and so the king came on another Irish expedition, landing in Ireland in 1399. This time his army was stronger and more experienced, but the result was a series of defeats and the loss of the throne of England. While Henry was seizing the crown his son, afterwards Henry V., was with Richard in Ireland, but the king accepted the youth's explanation that he knew nothing of his father's designs. As it was, Richard trusted to the fact that the legal heir to the throne was Edmund, Earl of March, son of the late viceroy. Henry's success to the exclusion of Edmund de Mortimer was the cause of the Wars of the Roses.
Viceregal poverty