The office of Lord High Steward of Ireland is a hereditary position of Great Officer of State in the United Kingdom. Currently held by the Earl of Shrewsbury, it is sometimes referred to as the Hereditary Great Seneschal.In an inscription on a leaden coffin for the remains of Gilbert, 7th Earl of Shrewsbury (died May 1616), in the Mausoleum of the Earls of Shrewsbury in the Chancel of St. Peter’s Church at Sheffield, the said Gilbert is further described as High Seneschal of Ireland While most of Ireland achieved independence in 1922, the title retains its original naming and scope rather than adjusting to reflect Northern Ireland as the sole portion of the province of Ulster remaining within the United Kingdom.
The title of Lord High Steward of Ireland was first bestowed in 1446 upon John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury by way of letters patent from King Henry VI. He was named Earl of Waterford and granted the hereditary office of Lord High Steward, to be passed down through the male heirs of his line.Calendar of the patent rolls, preserved in the Public Record Office :Henry VI, 1422-1461 Volume 4, page 448. 24 Henry 6 The lineage has remained unbroken, and the current holder of the position is Charles Chetwynd-Talbot, 22nd Earl of Shrewsbury, tracing his right to the office directly back to that original royal charter over 570 years ago.
Contrast with offices in England and Scotland The role of Lord High Steward in England is no longer hereditary. For instance, the Duke of Northumberland was granted the position for the Coronation of George V and Mary in 1911. Considered the highest Great Officers of State in order of precedence and also a supreme judge in Parliament, the Lord High Steward leads the new sovereign in processions. Carrying St Edward's Crown on a velvet cushion, the Lord High Steward walks ahead of the monarch. Adorned in robes of white satin and an under-garment of gold fabric, the Lord High Steward also wears a long red mantle and ermine tippet.
The Prince and Great Steward of Scotland is traditionally held by the Duke of Rothesay.Professor Noel Cox. "THE ARMS OF THE GRAND STEWARD OF SCOTLAND" (PDF). Reocities.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 3 August 2024. As the current Duke of Rothesay is also Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall, he has many other responsibilities associated with those titles. Given the extent of his duties, at the last two coronations the Earl of Crawford was appointed as deputy to carry out the functions of Prince and Great Steward of Scotland on behalf of the Duke of Rothesay/Prince of Wales.
The position of Lord High Steward of Ireland is traditionally held by the Earls of Shrewsbury on a hereditary basis. While the role resembles that of the analogous position in England, the Attorney General clarified the nature and authority of the office in 1862. Historically, the title can be traced back to when King Henry II granted the office of Lord High Steward or Great Seneschal of Ireland to Sir Bertram de Verdun.De Verdun is recorded as 'the Steward' in charters granted by King John, printed in William Lynch, A View of the Legal Institutions, Honorary Hereditary Offices, and Feudal Baronies, Established in Ireland During the Reign of Henry the Second. Deduced from Court Rolls, Inquisitions, and Other Records, page 158 and Calendar of the Patent Rolls, Edward III, 1334-1338, Volume 18, page 402 William Lynch wrote extensively about this feudal dignity, office, and its hereditary descent patterns in his book on the topic of feudal titles.A View of the Legal Institutions, Honorary Hereditary Offices, and Feudal Baronies, established in Ireland following the reign of Henry the Second, deduced from court rolls, inquisitions, and other original records by William Lynch, Esq., Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, published by Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, & Green, Paternoster Row, London, 1830. (See pages 75-79)
The hereditary nature of the office Sir William BlackstoneCommentaries on the Laws of England, by Sir William Blackstone, (first published in 4 volumes over 1765-1769), London. (See section V. Offices, of Chapter 3 - Incorporeal Hereditaments, of Book 2) observes that there are offices, consisting of a right to exercise public or private employment, along with the fees and emoluments thereunto belonging, that are also incorporeal hereditaments, i.e., heritable. Examples include certain royal offices, such as the Lord High Steward of Ireland. The holder may have an estate in them, unto him and his heirs. Other offices may be for life or for a term of years. In his work, William Lynch devotes a chapter to such incorporeal hereditaments as "Honorary Hereditary Officers". He describes the dignity of Lord Constable conferred on Hugh de Lacy by original grant in 1185 of Meath. The Lord Constable of Ireland, originally vested with lands to which it was incident or annexed, and which descended through Walter's son Gilbert de Lacy to John de Verdun (ex jure uxoris Margaret) by virtue of his moiety of Meath (the other moiety descending to Geoffrey de Geneville, 1st Baron Geneville, ex jure uxoris Matilda). By 1460, the lands to which it had been incident were vested in Lord Theobald de Verdun's co-heirs, and, according to Lynch, the exercise of the office fell into desuetude.
William FitzAldelm, Chief governor of Ireland in 1176-7, was described as "Senescallus Hiberniae" or as "Dapifer".
"It is worthy of remark that the title of Seneschal was revived in 1444 in favour of John Talbot when he was created Earl of Shrewsbury, as his wife was descended from Lord Furnival [Thomas de Furnivall, 2nd Baron Furnivall] who had in marriage the eldest daughter of Theobald de Verdon, and his descendant Lord Fumival, who died in 1446, left a daughter and heiress Maud Neville, who named Lord Talbot, and in this way he became possessed of his wife's portion of Theobald de Verdon's estate in Meath, as also of Alveston, now Alton Towers."
It can be seen elsewhere that the Lord High Stewardship continued to be inherited by the Earls of Shrewsbury. In Letters of Appointment dated 27 August in the 28th year of King Henry VI, the first Earl of Shrewsbury who was also the Lord High Steward or Great Seneschal of Ireland, appointed John Penyngton to be Steward of the Liberty of Waterford, and in such appointment, the Earl is described as "Senescallus ac Constabularius Hiberniae".House of Lords, Printed Evidence, 7 August 1855, no. 6, page 11 Further examples continue such as the case of George Talbot, 4th Earl of Shrewsbury, confirmed in an inquisition later in 1624, and recalled in a Case before the House of Lords in 1862, dealing with the Lord High Stewardship of Ireland. Such appointments by the Lords Shrewsbury of Stewards of Counties in Ireland were upheld by the House of Lords as proof of the exercise of the prerogatives of the Lord High Steward of Ireland.House of Lords, Case (see below), sections on Proofs, page 12-13 Furthermore, it was in his inherited capacity as Lord High Steward of Ireland that the 4th Earl of Shrewsbury, George Talbot, assisted at the coronation of King Henry VII in 1485. Charles Talbot, 12th Earl of Shrewsbury, in the same capacity as Lord High Steward of Ireland, assisted at the coronation of King James II in 1685. In both of these cases, the Lord High Steward carried the Curtana.
Lapses in hereditary exercise of the office due to the Penal Laws From the time of Henry VI, no English Monarch (except James II and William III during the civil war of 1690-2) was in Ireland until the visit of George IV in 1821. There was therefore during that period few if any occasion where the Earls of Shrewsbury could have exercised the duties of their office as Lords High Stewards of Ireland, about the person of the Sovereign.
As the Earls of Shrewsbury were at one time Roman Catholics, prior to Catholic Emancipation in Ireland, in 1829, they were prevented from effectively performing the judicial role of Lord High Steward. Hence, for example, in 1739, Thomas Wyndham, 1st Baron Wyndham was eight times one of the Lord Justices of Ireland, and officiated as Lord High Steward of Ireland in the trial of Henry Barry, 4th Baron Barry of Santry for murder and treason, being the first trial of a Lord by his Peers in the Kingdom of Ireland.The Complete Peerage by G.E.C., by G.H. White and R.S. Lea, Volume XII, Part II, 880, under Wyndham. Baron Wyndham of Finglass surrendered the offices of Lord Justice at his own request in 1739 on account of his ill-health.
The next trial of a peer was that of Nicholas Netterville, 5th Viscount Netterville, for murder in 1743, when Robert Jocelyn, 1st Viscount Jocelyn (Lord Chancellor of Ireland) presided as the acting Lord High Steward. The same ceremonials as for the trial of Lord Santry were used, but the case collapsed at the outset because the two principal witnesses had died. When the assembled peers judged Lord Netterville therefore not guilty, the Lord High Steward broke the white wand and adjourned the House.
The third case of a trial of a peer in Ireland by his peers was the trial of Robert King, 2nd Earl of Kingston, in May 1798, for the murder of a Henry Gerald Fitzgerald, the illegitimate son of his brother-in-law. In the absence of witnesses for the prosecution, he was found not guilty, and the Lord High Steward thereupon broke his wand of office. On that occasion, the duties of the Lord High Steward were discharged by John FitzGibbon, 1st Earl of Clare, who was also the Lord Chancellor of Ireland.In an earlier era, no less than seven Priors of Kilmainham, i.e., Knights Hospitaller, served as Lord Chancellor of Ireland. Another four Priors served as Lord Deputy or Lord Lieutenant - see The Knights of Malta, by H.J.A. Sire, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1994 (page 181)
Resumption upon Catholic Emancipation It was only after the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 that John Talbot, 16th Earl of Shrewsbury could take his seat in Parliament. Recognising the Earl's claim to the Lord High Stewardship, King William IV was pleased to respond to his petition and grant to the Earl the privileges inherent in the Lord High Stewardship, namely wearing the court uniform, and having access to the King's levées by means of the private entrée, and of using the same upon other customary occasions.
The same continuity of lineal succession and right was also upheld in the case of the Chief Serjeantcy of Ireland, when it was found that neither a period of adverse possession, nor "nonusor nor mysusor" was held valid against the legitimate and upheld claim of the lineal heir, Walter Cruise, of the first grantee, centuries later, as decreed and adjudged on 13 November in the fifth year of the reign of Edward VI, and as recorded in Lynch's "Feudal Dignities".
Hence, the Earl of Shrewsbury subsequently took his place, as Lord High Steward of Ireland, amongst the High Officers of State at the funeral of King William IV, when Queen Victoria also appointed him to carry the Banner of Ireland. Subsequently, his precedence over the dukes of England as Hereditary Lord High Steward of Ireland was established in the Table of Precedency prepared in the Herald's Office and approved by Thomas de Grey, 2nd Earl de Grey in his capacity as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1843; and similarly by Archibald Montgomerie, 13th Earl of Eglinton as Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland in 1858.