HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Brotherhood of Saint George was a short-lived military
guild A guild ( ) is an association of artisans and merchants who oversee the practice of their craft/trade in a particular area. The earliest types of guild formed as organizations of tradesmen belonging to a professional association. They sometimes ...
, which was founded in
Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...
in 1474 for the defence of the English-held territory of
the Pale The Pale (Irish: ''An Pháil'') or the English Pale (' or ') was the part of Ireland directly under the control of the English government in the Late Middle Ages. It had been reduced by the late 15th century to an area along the east coast st ...
. For a short time it was the only standing army maintained by the English Crown in
Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
. It was suppressed by King Henry VII in 1494, due to his suspicions about the Brotherhood's loyalty to his dynasty. It was not an order of
knighthood A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the ...
, although some of its individual members were knights.


History of the Pale

Following the
Norman Invasion of Ireland The Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland took place during the late 12th century, when Anglo-Normans gradually conquered and acquired large swathes of land from the Irish, over which the kings of England then claimed sovereignty, all allegedly san ...
, which began in 1169, the English Crown gradually extended its control over four-fifths of Ireland; but from the early fourteenth century onwards, the Crown's influence steadily diminished and its Irish territories shrank. By the middle of the fifteenth century, the only region of Ireland under secure English control was a part of Counties
Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...
,
Kildare Kildare () is a town in County Kildare, Ireland. , its population was 8,634 making it the 7th largest town in County Kildare. The town lies on the R445, some west of Dublin – near enough for it to have become, despite being a regional ce ...
, Meath and
Louth Louth may refer to: Australia *Hundred of Louth, a cadastral unit in South Australia * Louth, New South Wales, a town * Louth Bay, a bay in South Australia **Louth Bay, South Australia, a town and locality Canada * Louth, Ontario Ireland * Cou ...
. These lands were partially guarded by a fortified
ditch A ditch is a small to moderate divot created to channel water. A ditch can be used for drainage, to drain water from low-lying areas, alongside roadways or fields, or to channel water from a more distant source for plant irrigation. Ditches ar ...
or "Pale" (from the Latin ''palus''), which gave its name to the territory itself. The citizens of the Pale were constantly troubled by raids by neighbourng Irish clans (particularly the O'Byrnes and O'Tooles of County Wicklow), although the danger from the clans greatly diminished after 1401, when the Dubliners crushingly defeated the O'Byrne clan of County Wicklow at the Battle of Bloody Bank, by the
River Dargle The River Dargle () is a river that flows from the Wicklow Mountains in Ireland to the Irish Sea. It forms Powerscourt Waterfall, receives the Glencree and Glencullen Rivers, and later the Glenmunder Stream / County Brook, and the Swan River ...
. Despite this victory, defence of the Pale remained a permanent preoccupation of the Dublin Government.


Foundation of the Brotherhood

In 1474 the Irish Parliament, apparently at the instigation of Thomas, 7th Earl of Kildare, the Lord Deputy of Ireland, chose thirteen men "of the most noble and worthy in the four shires" as the members, or companions of the Brotherhood. They were ordered to assemble in Dublin every year on
St George's Day Saint George's Day is the feast day of Saint George, celebrated by Christian churches, countries, and cities of which he is the patron saint, including Bulgaria, England, Georgia, Portugal, Romania, Cáceres, Alcoy, Aragon and Catalonia. Sai ...
to express their loyalty to the Crown.


Role of the Brotherhood

The members of the Brotherhood were entrusted with the defence of the Pale, and were assigned 120
archers Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a bow to shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting and combat. In mo ...
, 40 other cavalry and 40
pages Page most commonly refers to: * Page (paper), one side of a leaf of paper, as in a book Page, PAGE, pages, or paging may also refer to: Roles * Page (assistance occupation), a professional occupation * Page (servant), traditionally a young mal ...
for that purpose. They had the right to levy customs duties on all merchandise sold in Ireland outside Dublin and Drogheda: this seems to have been an early form of the ''cess'', the
tax A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, or n ...
for the defence of the Pale, which caused much ill feeling and political controversy among the landowners of the Pale in the next century. They also had the right to arrest malefactors, rebels and outlaws. The captain was to be chosen annually: the 7th Earl of Kildare was the first captain. It has been said that the Brotherhood, with its 200 men, constituted for a time the "entire English standing army in Ireland". The choice of
Saint George Saint George (Greek: Γεώργιος (Geórgios), Latin: Georgius, Arabic: القديس جرجس; died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was a Christian who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to tradition he was a soldie ...
as the
patron saint A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, or Eastern Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or perso ...
of the order suggests some degree of personal involvement in the foundation of the Brotherhood by King Edward IV, who had a keen interest in the cult of that particular saint.


The Companions of Saint George

''List of the original Companions of Saint George:'' The list is taken from Sir James Ware ''History of Ireland'' Dobsons Dublin 1705 p.729 *
Thomas FitzGerald, 7th Earl of Kildare Thomas FitzJohn FitzGerald, 7th Earl of Kildare ( – 25 March 1477), was an Irish peer and statesman of the fifteenth century who held the office of Lord Chancellor of Ireland. Background Kildare was the son of John Fitzmaurice FitzGerald, 6th ...
, *
Robert St Lawrence, 3rd Baron Howth Robert St Lawrence, 3rd Baron Howth (born c.1435 – died before 1488) was a leading statesman in 15th-century Ireland who held the office of Lord Chancellor of Ireland. Through his second marriage, he was a close connection to the new Tudor dyna ...
*Sir
Robert Dowdall Sir Robert Dowdall (died 1482) was an Irish judge who held the office of Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas for more than forty years. He is mainly remembered today for the murderous assault on him by Sir James Keating, the Prior of Kilmain ...
, Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas * Barnaby Barnewall of Crickstown, judge of the
Court of King's Bench (Ireland) The Court of King's Bench (of Queen's Bench when the sovereign was female, and formerly of Chief Place or Chief Pleas) was one of the senior courts of common law in Ireland. It was a mirror of the Court of King's Bench in England. The King's Be ...
*
Rowland FitzEustace, 1st Baron Portlester Rowland FitzEustace, 1st Baron Portlester (c. 1430 – 19 December 1496) was an Irish peer, statesman and judge. He was one of the dominant political figures in late fifteenth-century Ireland, rivalled in influence probably only by his son-in-law ...
*
John Plunkett, 3rd Baron of Dunsany John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second E ...
* Alexander Plunket, Lord Chancellor of Ireland *Sir
Robert FitzEustace Sir Robert FitzEustace (c.1420–1486) was an Irish landowner and politician of the fifteenth century. He was born at Coghlanstown, County Kildare, son of Sir Richard FitzEustace, who served briefly as Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and Katherine ...
, High Sheriff of Kildare *Sir Lawrence Taaffe, Mayor of Drogheda *Richard Bellew of
Bellewstown Bellewstown () is a village located 8 km south of Drogheda, on the Hill of Crockafotha in County Meath in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It takes its name from the Anglo-Irish Bellew family, who were the dominant local landowners from th ...
* Robert Preston, 1st Viscount Gormanston *Edward Plunkett, Seneschal of Meath * the
Mayor of Dublin The Lord Mayor of Dublin ( ga, Ardmhéara Bhaile Átha Cliath) is the honorary title of the chairperson ( ga, Cathaoirleach, links=no ) of Dublin City Council which is the local government body for the city of Dublin, the capital of Ireland. The ...
: presumably this was either John Bellew (Mayor 1473/4) or Nicholas Burke (Mayor 1474/5).


Social Background of the Companions

All of the original Companions belonged to the landowning class. Five of them were members of the
Irish peerage The Peerage of Ireland consists of those titles of nobility created by the English monarchs in their capacity as Lord or King of Ireland, or later by monarchs of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It is one of the five divis ...
, two held elective office, and three were judges. The position of Lord Chancellor of Ireland did not necessarily require professional training as a lawyer, but two other members of the Brotherhood held judicial offices which required the holder to be a qualified lawyer. James Keating, Prior of Kilmainham, though not listed as one of the founding members, is said to have joined the Brotherhood at a later date: as his monastic order, the
Knights Hospitallers The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic military order. It was headq ...
, were "fighting monks", he was a logical choice to serve as a member.


History of the Brotherhood

During its 20-year history surprisingly little is recorded about the Brotherhood. William Sherwood,
Bishop of Meath The Bishop of Meath is an episcopal title which takes its name after the ancient Kingdom of Meath. In the Roman Catholic Church it remains as a separate title, but in the Church of Ireland it has been united with another bishopric. History Unt ...
, during his brief and unpopular tenure as Lord Deputy of Ireland (1475–77), abolished the Brotherhood, but it was reconstituted in 1479. The 7th Earl of Kildare, who seems to have been the driving force behind it, had died in 1477 and several of the original brethren were dead by 1487 (although the order did have the right to fill vacancies in its membership, and as noted Prior Keating was chosen to fill one vacancy, while Lord Howth was replaced by his eldest son and heir).


Suppression of the Order

After the downfall of the House of York in 1485, the Anglo-Irish nobility, whose leaders made up the knights of the Brotherhood, remained strongly
Yorkist The House of York was a cadet branch of the English royal House of Plantagenet. Three of its members became kings of England in the late 15th century. The House of York descended in the male line from Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York, t ...
in sympathy. Apart from Nicholas, 4th Baron Howth, son and heir of one of the original Brotherhood, who had a connection by marriage to the new
Tudor dynasty The House of Tudor was a royal house of largely Welsh and English origin that held the English throne from 1485 to 1603. They descended from the Tudors of Penmynydd and Catherine of France. Tudor monarchs ruled the Kingdom of England and it ...
, almost all of the noblemen who were associated with the Brotherhood supported the claims of the Yorkist
pretender A pretender is someone who claims to be the rightful ruler of a country although not recognized as such by the current government. The term is often used to suggest that a claim is not legitimate.Curley Jr., Walter J. P. ''Monarchs-in-Waiting'' ...
Lambert Simnel Lambert Simnel (c. 1477 – after 1534) was a pretender to the throne of England. In 1487, his claim to be Edward Plantagenet, 17th Earl of Warwick, threatened the newly established reign of Henry VII (1485–1509). Simnel became the ...
to the English Crown, and some of them followed him to his crushing defeat by Henry VII at the
Battle of Stoke The Battle of Stoke Field on 16 June 1487 may be considered the last battle of the Wars of the Roses, since it was the last major engagement between contenders for the throne whose claims derived from descent from the houses of Lancaster and Yo ...
in 1487. Although the victorious King Henry showed a remarkable degree of clemency towards the defeated rebels, and indeed towards Simnel himself (he became a servant in the royal household), this evidence of disloyalty to his dynasty may well explain the decision of Henry VII, who was not a trustful man by nature, to dissolve the Brotherhood in 1494.Rees, Abraham ''Cyclopedia'' London 1819 Vol. XIX


References

{{reflist, 2 1474 establishments in Ireland Warfare of the Middle Ages Lordship of Ireland Military history of Ireland Guilds in Ireland