Clement Fitzleones, FitzLyons, or Leones (died c.

1509 __NOTOC__ Year 1509 ( MDIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events January–June * January 21 – The Portuguese first arrive at the Seven Islands of Bombay and ...

) was an Irish lawyer and judge. He held the offices of

Serjeant-at-law (Ireland) This is a list of lawyers who held the rank of serjeant-at-law at the Irish Bar. Origins of the office of serjeant The first recorded serjeant was Roger Owen, who was appointed between 1261 and 1266, although the title itself was not commonly ...

and

Attorney-General for Ireland The Attorney-General for Ireland was an Irish and then (from the Act of Union 1800) United Kingdom government office-holder. He was senior in rank to the Solicitor-General for Ireland: both advised the Crown on Irish legal matters. With the ...

and was briefly Deputy to the

Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer The Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer was the Baron (judge) who presided over the Court of Exchequer (Ireland). The Irish Court of Exchequer was a mirror of the equivalent court in England and was one of the four courts which sat in the buildin ...

. Neither Ball nor Hart gave any details of his family background, but there was a prominent

merchant A merchant is a person who trades in commodities produced by other people, especially one who trades with foreign countries. Historically, a merchant is anyone who is involved in business or trade. Merchants have operated for as long as indust ...

family of that name has been recorded in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

since the thirteenth century, and a landowning family of the same name in

County Meath County Meath (; gle, Contae na Mí or simply ) is a county in the Eastern and Midland Region of Ireland, within the province of Leinster. It is bordered by Dublin to the southeast, Louth to the northeast, Kildare to the south, Offaly to the sou ...

, which died out sometime after 1290. In 1281 Geoffrey Fitzleones and his wife Johanna granted the rents from their lands at Ballyardolf to the Augustinian Friary of Holy Trinity. Probably the most notable member of this family was Patrick FitzLeones, who was

Lord 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 ...

in 1477-1478, 1482-1483 and 1494-1495. Patrick was clearly a man of considerable wealth and social standing, who married into the powerful Eustace family, and subsequently married his daughter Margaret to

John Barnewall, 3rd Baron Trimlestown John Barnewall, 3rd Baron Trimleston (1470-25 July 1538), was an Irish nobleman, judge and politician. He was the eldest son of Christopher Barnewall, 2nd Baron Trimlestown and his wife Elizabeth Plunket, daughter of Sir Thomas Fitz-Christopher Pl ...

Lord Chancellor of Ireland The Lord High Chancellor of Ireland (commonly known as Lord Chancellor of Ireland) was the highest judicial office in Ireland until the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922. From 1721 to 1801, it was also the highest political office of ...

. If Clement was one of the Dublin family, he was probably the same Clement Fitzleones who was elected one of the

Constables A constable is a person holding a particular office, most commonly in criminal law enforcement. The office of constable can vary significantly in different jurisdictions. A constable is commonly the rank of an officer within the police. Other peop ...

of Dublin in 1493. In 1493 Clement was Deputy to John Wyse, the Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer. According to Elrington Ball, the practice of appointing Deputies to this office had begun ten years earlier with the appointment of

Oliver FitzEustace Oliver FitzEustace ( died after 1491) was an Irish judge. His appointment as Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer was a surprising one since according to the leading historian of the Irish judiciary he appears to have been unable to speak. Oliver w ...

, a natural son of

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 ...

as Chief Baron. Oliver, who owed his appointment solely to his father's great influence, was not only lacking in legal training, but was apparently mentally deficient and incapable of speech. In 1494 Wyse was replaced by

Walter Ivers Walter Ivers, Evers or Yvers (died after 1496) was an English-born Crown official and judge in late fifteenth-century Ireland. For a few years in the 1490s, he was a key ally of Sir Edward Poynings, Lord Deputy of Ireland 1494-6.Ball p.109 Little ...

, former

Chancellor of the Exchequer of Ireland The Chancellor of the Exchequer of Ireland was the head of the Exchequer of Ireland and a member of the Dublin Castle administration under the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in the Kingdom of Ireland. In early times the title was sometimes given as Ch ...

, as part of a general purge of Irish judges whose loyalty 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 ...

was considered suspect, and Fitzleones was presumably removed at the same time. In 1499 Fitzleones, having regained the Crown's trust, was made Attorney General, or "King's Attorney in all Courts" as the patent describes him, where he is called Clement Leones. The reference to "all Courts" is unusual: previous Attorneys were usually licensed to appear in specific courts. By 1505 he had been promoted to the more senior office of King's Serjeant. In 1509 Patrick Finglas was appointed Serjeant. While two serjeants occasionally acted at the same time, as a rule, there was only one, which suggests that Fitzleoenes had recently died.Hart, A.R. ''History of the King's Serjeants at law in Ireland'' Four Courts Press Dublin 2000 p.26

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fitzleones, Clement Attorneys-General for Ireland Lawyers from Dublin (city) 15th-century Irish judges 15th-century births 1509 deaths Year of birth unknown Chief Barons of the Irish Exchequer Serjeants-at-law (Ireland)