Statutes of Kilkenny (commentary)

1. Cultural restrictions

a) The rule

The preamble of the statute says:

“But now many English of the said land, forsaking the English language, manners, mode of riding,…, govern themselves according to the manners, fashion and language of the Irish enemies, and also have made divers marriages and alliances between themselves and the Irish enemies aforesaid;”

The beginning of the statutes explains the reasons why this law is necessary: after the possession of these territories, Norman English people are imperilled of the assimilation from the native population. The Irish people are considered as an enemy and the Norman English possessors as victims, so the King of England’s objective is to re-establish the justice.

First, the marriages or commercial activities between subjects of the two nations are completely forbidden or in the other case the citizens will be judge for these acts.

On the other hand the Irish language or customs are also illicit for the Englishmen. The citizens that do not respect these laws are threatened to go to prison.  This article recognizes the disconnection between the language of the English population in Ireland and their English cousins. The Statutes of Kilkenny are clearly evidence that a nationalizing England was trying to protect against the invasion of Irish cultural elements on an Anglo-Saxon identity still weakly defining itself. In fact the only new disposition in the II and III articles was the one that forbade the Irish language. In 1297, one of the earliest Irish statutes had provided that Englishmen should relinquish the Irish dress, at least in the head or hair. The ordinances made by Rokeby in 1351 had forbidden alliances between British and Irish.

   b) Consequences

This attempt at preventing the use of Irish in Ireland was ineffective. By the fifteenth-century the English language was all but extinct outside of the area surrounding Dublin, known as "The Pale". Towns such as Dublin, Galway, and Waterford, grappled to maintain English as the language of quotidian usage. The towns, though typically English in organization, architecture and law, were by no means isolated from the rural Irish population. Irishmen who agreed to follow the laws of the towns were admitted as citizens but nevertheless, brought their language with them. By the end of the medieval period, there are numerous reports written back to England by visitors to Ireland decrying the refusal on the part of the landed English to speak anything but Irish or broken English.

2. Prohibition of the Irish Law

1. Brehon laws are illegal

The article establishes that the only law that exists is the Common law, and Englishmen have not the right to use the March law or the Brehon law, which cannot be called laws, “being a bad custom”. Irish laws are considered as barbarous, because they do not permit to Englishmen to possess Ireland. In fact these ancient "barbarous" laws of Ireland have since been recognized as the most advanced system of jurisprudence in the ancient world, a system under which the doctrine of the equality of man was understood and under which a deeply humane and cultured society flourished. These ancient Irish laws have come to be called “The Brehon Laws” from the Irish term "Brehon" which was applied to the official lawgiver. They were transmitted orally and with extreme accuracy from generation to generation by a special class of professional jurists called Brithem (judge in early Gaelic). Nevertheless, the main purpose of article IV of the statutes is to efface this heritage and to establish the common law as the only existing rule. It is not a new disposition because the ordinance from 1351(Rokeby) also forbade the Brehon laws.

2. Consequences

The statute, although marking an interesting stage in the history of Ireland, had very little practical effect. Brehon law survived till 17th century when it was finally suppressed and replaced by the English Common law. In fact English law was applied in “The Pale”, but beyond this territory, Brehon law continued to be applied.

3. Protection from the Irish enemies

a) Relationships between two nations are illicit

“It is agreed and forbidden, that any Irish agents… shall not come amongst the English, and that no English shall receive or make gift to such; and that shall do so, and be attainted, shall be taken and imprisoned…”

In fact it is forbidden to an Irish minstrel to come among to English ones, since they spy out their secrets. This was a new disposition, that didn’t copy the older ones. The Irish population is again treated as a danger. This is confirmed in the XXth article:

“Also, it is agreed and assented that one peace and war be throughout the entire land, so that if any Irish or English shall make a hostile inroad in any county, the counties surrounding them shall make war and harrass them in their marches…”

In fact the Irish people were in the worse situation than a foreign country that had good relationships with the King of England. This law aim to establish hostility and separation between two peoples in order to re-install the English authority. Statutes of Kilkenny had in fact established not an absolute prohibition but machinery by which the admission of Irishmen to benefices and protection could be controlled.

    b) Consequences

After the  the city was divided into two townships called Irishtown and Englishtown, a situation that wasn’t uncommon in a country occupied for so long by the English. For religious, cultural and political reasons there were deep divisions between the two groups.

Conclusion

The Statutes of Kilkenny demonstrate the extent to which Irish parliaments and great councils had became concerned with the issues caused by the growing problems of absenteeism and “degeneracy”. The measures were a failure. Gaelicisation had gone too far and by now the native population, having failed to beat the invaders on the field of battle, was in league militarily with the conquerors. By the end of the fifteenth century the English crown ruled only a small area around Dublin, 'The Pale'.

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