Richard Rede

Richard Rede (died after 1416) was a leadingIrish statesman and judgeof the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. He held office as Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer, Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, Deputy Lord Chancellor of Ireland and Deputy Treasurer of Ireland.

He was born in County Meath.Rede (also spelledReid)had been a common Irish name, especially in Ulster, since the thirteenth century. Little seems to be known about his parents. Hiswife was Elizabeth Netterville, daughter and heiress of Richard Netterville of Dowth. One branch of thefamilywould later become onethe most prominent landowning familiesin Meath,and acquired the title Viscount Netterville.

Elizabeth Netterville,whose father died when she was very young, wasmade a royal ward. The questionofher inheritance,which wasconsiderable,led to bitter disputes betweenneighbouring landowners, each of whomhoped to gaincontrol ofher estate by marrying her to his ownmale heir.

King Richard IIappointed John Humbleton, one of his esquires of the body,as her guardian in 1394.Elizabeth was kidnapped bymembers of the Darcy and Cusack families, whono doubthoped to gain control of her lands. She was soon released, but six years later the Crown was informed that these families still hoped to cheat her outof her inheritance. By 1400Humbleton, no doubt finding that the wardship had beenmore trouble than it was worth, hadgranted custodyof Elizabeth to Rede, who married her soon afterwards, but this was notthe end of the trouble over herinheritance.

Richard spent much of his career moving between Ireland and England, and seems to have been uncertain which country he wished to permanentlysettle in. In England he servedon a commission of the peace in Kent in 1394 and ona similar commission in Middlesex in 1407. Heacted as executorof Robert Braybrooke, Bishop of London, in 1404.

At the same time he maintained close links with Ireland: he was Chief Baron in1399-1401 and Lord Chief Justicein 1404-6. Thomas Cranley, Lord Chancellor of Ireland, wasdue to his advanced age and ill health frequently forced to act through deputies:Rede served as hisDeputy in 1404.

On 5April 1401 while he wastraveling from Drogheda to Trim, Rede was abductednear Skryneby Thomas Fleming, 2nd Baron Slane, and imprisoned in a nearby castle belonging to Thomas's son Christopher. He was held hostageuntil he paid a ransomof £1000 (a vast sum at the time)to Christopher, and hewas also robbed of £200 and numerous official records. What lay behind the episode, which was exceptional even in that violent age, is unclear. It has been suggested that the Flemings,like the Darcys and Cusacks, hadpreviouslyhad hopes of gaining the Netterville lands which Rede had acquired through his marriage to Elizabeth Netterville: while the latter families' abduction of Elizabeth in 1394seems to have been fruitless, the Flemings'abduction of her husband brought them a substantial profit.

The outraged Redepetitioned the new King Henry IVto visit "suitable punishment" on the Flemings for their crimes, so that a "suitable example be made of all who would plan such things". The King's Council endorsed the petition, and for a time it seemed that the Flemings would suffer heavily for their treatment of Rede: in June 1401 a powerful commission was appointed to arrest and imprison Lord Slane and his wife Elizabeth Preston. This was however an era when the nobility found it easy to obtain a royal pardonfor even the most heinous crimes, and in October 1401Lord Slane, on payment of £30 (a derisory sum compared to the£1200 he had extracted from Rede), was duly pardoned.

After being superseded as Lord Chief Justice in 1406 he returned to England and askedfor permission to reside there permanently. Given his ill-treatment by the Flemings and his failure to obtain adequate redressfor his wrongs,this was natural enough. Rather surprisingly,he returned to Ireland two years later and apparently died in Ireland. He was Deputy Treasurer of Ireland in 1413. He and his wife were bothstill alive in 1416, andwere still expanding their holdings, with purchases of landinCounty Louth.