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Historical Revision

VII. The Preston Exemplification of the Modus Tenendi Parliamentum

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2016

H. G. Richardson
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Extract

In a pleasant popular account of the owners of Gormanston Castle and of some documents connected with them, recently published by Father Aubrey Gwynn, there is one matter upon which comment seems desirable: this is the author's restatement of the late Miss M. V. Clarke's hypothesis regarding the Irish Modus tenendi parliamentum or rather one copy of it, that exemplified in 1419. That a historian so learned and critical as Fr. Gwynn should accept this hypothesis without reserve, and indeed hold up Miss Clarke's essays as ‘ models of their kind ’, suggests that they are capable of a good deal of mischief.

Type
Research Article
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 3 , Issue 10 , September 1942 , pp. 187 - 192
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 1942

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References

1 ‘ Gormanston Castle in Irish history ’, in Studies (Mar. 1942), xxxi. 47–64.

1 ‘ Did Richard II murder the duke of Gloucester?’ in Manchester University historical essays, pp. 193–216 ; the citation is from p. 201. This point is not affected by subsequent controversy in E.H.R., xxxviii. 249–51, 563–4; xlvii. 276–80, 453. For the form of the exemplification, see H. Hall, Formula book of diplomatic docu¬ments, p. 69.

2 H. Hall, op, cit., p. 57; Studies in official historical documents, p. 243 ; Maxwell Lyte, The great seal, pp. 197–8, 218–9.

3 The teyt will be found in Steele, Tudor & Stuart proclam., i, app. v, and M.V. Clarke, Meaieval representation and consent, pp. 384–92. It will be noticed that the instrument was carelessly prepared. Though it was a matter of indifference whether to speak of a formal act ‘ coram nobis et consilio nostro ’ or ‘ coram locum nostrum tenente et consilio nostro ’, it was stupid to introduce both forms into the same document.

1 cat. close rolls, 1413–19, p. 472. miss clarke knew this, but disposed of the point by imagining that preston and his fellow-prisoners might lodge an accusation against the lieutenant, sir john talbot (op. cit., pp. 78–9). it seems likely, however, from the documents that talbot had notified the english council of their arrest and had asked for instructions as to their disposal, and that throughout the lieutenant and the english government were acting in accord.

2 Or, if he believed the Modus to have been drawn up under Henry II, we may substitute ‘ an ancient historical document ’.

3 Clarke, p. 78, cited by Gwynn, p. 58.

1 That the exemplification conveyed recognition of some sort is suggested by Dopping in the preface to his edition of the Irish Modus, by W Molyneux, The case of Ireland's being bound by acts of parliament in England stated (1698), pp. 32–5, by H. J. Monck Mason, Antiquity and constitution of parliaments in Ireland, app. ii, and by Sir T D. Hardy in his preface (p. vi) to the English Modus. Professor A. F. Pollard states that ‘ a revised version of [the English Modus] was sent over to Ireland in 1418. ’ (Evolution of parliament, p. 68).

2 Op. cit., p. 96 : cf. p. 109.

3 History, xxii. 66–9.

4 Clarke, op. cit., pp. 110–12; E.H.R., xlviii. 597–600.

5 Early stat. Ire., Hen. VI, pp. 84–6

1 Early stat. Ire., 1–12 Edw. IV, p. 262.

2 Fr. Gwynn says that ‘ Miss Clarke was convinced that the document now in the Huntington Library is in fact the original roll which was found upon the person of Sir Christopher Preston ’, and he speaks of this having been brought to London. He does Miss Clarke an injustice. She appreciated that it was the exemplification which is in the Huntington Library and which passed to Lord Ellesmere. Of the original roll nothing is known after its mention in 1419.

3 Op. cit., pp. 81–4.

1 A form of exemplification is in the printed Registrum brevium, f. 290b, and the nature of the instrument is explained in Page's case (Coke's Reports, v. 52–4).