Throughout history, many nations have held a distaste for indigenous people or foreign nationals. This hatred is often observed and recognized during times of colonial conquest or radical movements. However, the longstanding contention between the Irish and the English remains a fascinating topic of study due to the abundance of documents on the subject. One of such documents is the Statute of Kilkenny, a document crafted to create a social divide between the English and the Irish. Before the document could be understood entirely, one must be familiar with its original purpose of being written, what the text itself means and advocates for, and its overall effect on the conflict between England and Ireland. After completely understanding the document in these ways, one will gain a perspective on how vital it was and truly understand its value to modern society.

 

The first way to completely understand its value is identifying the original purpose of the document, who wrote it, and why they wrote it. The Statutes of Kilkenny were a collection of laws devised by the parliament in Kilkenny, primarily by Lord Lionel of Antwerp to rid English settlements of the possibility of “going native” and stop the blending of English and Irish cultures (Mitchell 10). Their initial purpose was to protect the waning influence and the shrinking lands of the colonies, making this piece of legislation defensive rather than aggressive (Hand 299). However, the situation between the English and the Irish was far from peaceful. In the past couple of centuries England, the Angevin Empire, was pushing expansion into Ireland. At its height, Angevin England took half of Ireland. The Statutes were a precaution to protect the remaining territories they were able to hold by preventing any form of cultural assimilation. This was a mission shared by Gerald of Wales two hundred years prior to the implementation of these laws. In the later part of his life, Gerald of Wales aimed to support English rule in Ireland by forging propaganda that promoted Irish assimilation into English culture and criticized the Gaelic way of life. One example of such propaganda, the Topography of Ireland, was written to engage the King, Church, and English public with his ideas (Brown 60). He believed that the English king had a just title to Ireland because the people there were wild and inhospitable (Dahm 12). He described them as beast-like people who live among other beasts who cannot be said to have any culture, despite admitting that their use of instruments was incomprehensibly more skilled than any other culture he had seen (Dahm 12). Acknowledging that he produced rhetoric that often contradicted itself, King Henry II advocated his work and displayed the idea of primitive Irishmen across his entire kingdom. He thought that the supposed nature of the natives justified colonization because they were not using their green pastures for farming. Despite there being many contradictions in his work, the English took his interpretation seriously and developed an aversion to Gaelic culture. One of such aversions, the aversion of the Irish language, becomes a key notion implemented into the document. Ideas like these created the founding purpose of the document: to passively eliminate Irish culture in English territories by whatever means necessary.

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After understanding the main reasons why the document was forged, the next critical way to understand the Statutes of Kilkenny is by interpreting what the text says and implements over the English in Ireland. The first way the document attacks Gaelic society was by stating “it is ordained and established, that no alliance by marriage, gossipred, fostering of children, or concubinage, nor in any other manner, be henceforth made between the English and Irish of one part, or of the other part.” This phrase immediately attacks the continuation of a familial structure in the region. The goal of this is to establish a racial barrier between the invaders and the locals, and prevent the inhabitants from tainting the English with their culture. One ineffective way that the laws tried to prevent was the usage of Irish names. The statutes state that “every Englishman do use the English Language, and be named by an English name, leaving off entirely the manner of naming used by the Irish.” The statutes also prevent Irish culture from spreading by silencing the language itself. “The political integrity of the state would be maintained, it was believed, through its linguistic unity” (Green, 246). The statutes initially reaffirm this statement by blocking any form of Gaelic linguistics within English territory. Locals ruled by the English occupants were also forbidden to use Irish saddles if they owned or rented land that cost over one hundred pounds. It is also stated that local priests and church authorities who refuse to speak the English language will have increasing trouble with serving the public until they start to speak English. Another limit the Statutes implemented on the public was the illegalization of Irish activities, which were seen as primitive or weakening the defense of the nation. One explicit example of this is the ban of football, the game “with great sticks and a ball upon the ground.” Games like football and dice throwing were banned in 1410 by the Statutes, and the list extended again in 1478 (Green, 248). Through all of its laws, the Statutes of Kilkenny implemented nothing but limits on the English populations, but how effective are they on limiting the people?

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The final way to understand a document like the Statutes of Kilkenny is to identify the effects it had on the population of England. Though the Statutes apply very strict rules to the English colonies of Ireland, they are ineffective in completely ridding their territorial gains of Irish influence. The paragraph of the Statutes that involve eliminating sports in place of archery actually have a negative effect on the desired outcome. By 1478, archery was reported to have a massive decline while robbery and murder over the illegal games were said to increase (Green 248). The new laws had failed miserably on the goal of protecting the land. Not only did the Statutes fail in driving the people’s attention away from games, but they also failed in ridding the public of people’s Irish names. Instead of doing away with their Irish names, they began to switch back and forth between an anglicized name and their original Celtic name depending on which situation they were in. This strategy really demonstrates the weak side of the Statutes of Kilkenny by proving that like nature, people either Irish or English are able to keep their chosen name despite a heavy crackdown on Gaelic culture. Lionel’s goal was partially effective because familial matters were suspended with the Irish. However, Irish culture was still protected by its people who found ways to keep their identities from perishing.

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In conclusion, the Statutes of Kilkenny were a set of laws devised by Lord Lionel and the English government to keep their people from “going native” and assimilating into Irish culture. This set of laws was based on ideas that originated from Gerald of Wales and his works that criticized the Irish and promoted the English invasion of Ireland. The laws themselves forbade Irish names, any intimate relationship with an Irish person, Irish games, and more. Despite the implementation of these laws, the locals still found loopholes that aided them in preserving their Irish identities. The Statutes of Kilkenny, like most other laws involving segregation such as Jim Crow and Apartheid, did not last. Despite the degradation of these laws in the Modern Era, nationalistic ideals and tension still exist within the British Isles between the UK and Ireland. Do you think history will repeat itself, and limits will be imposed between these countries?

 

Works Cited

 

Hand, G. J. "The Forgotten Statutes of Kilkenny: A Brief Survey." Irish Jurist, vol. 1, no. 2, Winter 1966, pp. 299-312. HeinOnline, https://heinonline.org/HOL/P?h=hein.journals/irishjur1&i=307. Accessed 31 Jan. 2023.

 

Dahm, Murray. “Wild People: GERALD OF WALES ON THE ‘CONQUEST’ OF IRELAND.” Medieval Warfare, vol. 6, no. 4, 2016, pp. 9–12. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/48578587. Accessed 1 Feb. 2023.

 

Green, David. “The Statute Of Kilkenny (1366): Legislation and the State.” Journal of Historical Sociology  Vol. 27, No. 2, June 2014, pp. 236-262. Blackboard https://bblearn.evansville.edu/ultra/courses/_60088_1/outline/file/_961209_1 Accessed 1 Feb. 2023.

 

Brown, Michelle P. “Gerald of Wales and the ‘Topography of Ireland’: Authorial Agendas in Word and Image.” Journal of Irish Studies, vol. 20, 2005, pp. 52–63. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44646155. Accessed 2 Feb. 2023.

 

Mitchell, Linda E. “Gender(Ed) Identities? Anglo-Norman Settlement, Irish-Ness, and The Statutes of Kilkenny of 1367.” Historical Reflections / Réflexions Historiques, vol. 37, no. 2, 2011, pp. 8–23. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41403717. Accessed 2 Feb. 2023.