View source for Christopher Preston, 2nd Baron Gormanston

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'''Christopher Preston, 2nd Baron Gormanston''' ({{circa}} 1354 – 1422) was an [[Anglo-Irish]] peer and statesman. He was accused of [[treason]] and imprisoned in 1418-19, but was soon released and restored to royal favour.
==Early career==
He was the son of [[Robert Preston, 1st Baron Gormanston]] and his first wife Margaret de Bermingham, daughter and heiress of Walter de Bermingham, feudal baron of Kells-in-Ossory. He was born between 1354 and 1360.<ref>Mosley, ed. ''Burke's Peerage'' 107th Edition Delaware 2003 Vol. 2 p.1601</ref>
He was [[knighted]] in 1397 and took his seat in the [[Irish House of Lords]]; although the Crown also recognised [[Baron Gormanston]] as a [[hereditary peerage]], Christopher sat in the Lords as Baron Kells, in right of his mother.<ref>''Slane Peerage Case'' (1835) Reports of House of Lords Cases Vol. 4</ref>
==Charge of treason==
His career appears to have been uneventful until 1418, when he clashed with [[John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury]], the [[Lord Lieutenant of Ireland]]. Talbot accused Gormanston, [[Gerald FitzGerald, 5th Earl of Kildare]] and the Prior of the Order of [[Knights Hospitaller|Hospitallers]] at [[Kilmainham]], [[Thomas Le Boteller]], of a treasonable [[conspiracy]]. The prior, who was a professional soldier, removed himself from the conflict by going to fight at the [[Siege of Rouen (1418-1419)|Siege of Rouen]], and died there two years later; but Kildare and Gormanston were imprisoned and subject to [[forfeiture (law)|forfeiture]] of their lands. They were accused of dissolving [[Parliament of Ireland|Parliament]] without the Lord Lieutenant's consent, holding a purported Parliament without Royal authority, uttering threats against the Lord Lieutenant and [[Privy Council of Ireland|Privy Council]], and plotting to kill the Lord Lieutenant.<ref name=Otway-Ruthven>Otway-Ruthven, A.J. ''History of Medieval Ireland'' Barnes and Noble reissue 1993 p.354-6</ref>
As regards the truth or falsehood of the more serious charges, Gormanston had undoubtedly acted in a high-handed manner by trying to dissolve Parliament, but Otway-Ruthven considers it unlikely that he was guilty of anything more than hostility to Talbot. This enmity may have been the first sign of the 30-year feud, which came to completely dominate Irish public life, between Talbot and his allies on the one hand, and [[James Butler, 4th Earl of Ormonde]], who was the Prior's half-brother and Kildare's future son-in-law, on the other.<ref name =Otway-Ruthven/>
The evidence of treason against Gormanston consisted mainly of his possession of the King's [[Coronation Oath]], and also of a controversial  14th-century [[treatise]], the ''[[Modus Tenendi Parliamentum]]'', which had apparently belonged to his father.<ref name =Otway-Ruthven/> Although the treatise stresses the importance of Parliament's role in Government and (on an extreme view) could be taken as justifying the deposition of the King, Lord Gormanston's possession of it may simply indicate that he was interested in political reform. He explained that he thought the treatise, which he had found in his father's collection of manuscripts, was worth preserving.
He was quickly cleared of the charges of treason, released and restored to his estates. In 1421 he was sent with a message from Parliament to King [[Henry V of England|Henry V]]. He died the following year.
==Family==
He married Elizabeth de Londres, daughter and co-heiress of William de Londres, feudal baron of [[Naas]]. She was still alive in 1400. His son Christopher succeeded as Baron of Gormanston, [[Kells, County Kilkenny|Kells]] and Naas.<ref>''Burke's Peerage'' p.1601</ref> He also had at least one daughter, Elizabeth, who married [[Thomas Fleming, 2nd Baron Slane]] and had issue.<ref>''Slane Peerage case''</ref>
==References==
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{{s-ttl|title=[[Viscount Gormanston|Baron Gormanston]]|years=1396–1422}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Christopher Preston, 3rd Baron Gormanston|Christopher Preston]]}}
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[[Category:Barons in the Peerage of Ireland]]
[[Category:14th-century Irish politicians]]
[[Category:1422 deaths]]
[[Category:1350s births]]
[[Category:15th-century Irish politicians]]