View source for Robert Preston, 1st Viscount Gormanston

{{Short description|Irish peer and statesman}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
'''Robert Preston, 1st Viscount Gormanston''' (1435–1503) was an [[Irish peer]] and statesman of the fifteenth century who held the offices of Deputy to the [[Lord Chancellor of Ireland]] and [[Lord Deputy of Ireland]].
==Background==
He was the son of Christopher Preston, 3rd [[Baron Gormanston]] and Jane d'Artois: his mother was the daughter of Sir [[Jenico d'Artois]] and his first wife Joan Taffe. Her father Sir Jenico was a soldier from [[Gascony]] who had entered the English royal service in the 1390s and who later became a substantial landowner in Ireland (hence the unusual boy's name Jenico, which became common in later generations of the Preston family).<ref>''Journal of the Co. Kildare Archeological Society 1902''</ref> Robert succeeded his father as 4th Baron Gormanston in 1450; his mother later remarried [[Giles Thorndon]], formerly [[Lord Treasurer of Ireland]].<ref>''Journal of the Co. Kildare Archaeological Society 190''2</ref>
Robert had close ties to [[Rowland FitzEustace, 1st Baron Portlester]], who married as his third wife Robert's cousin, Marguerite d'Artois, and he became a supporter of Portlester's son-in-law, the 8th or "Great Earl" of Kildare. With Lord Portlester, he was one of the original Companions of the [[Brotherhood of Saint George]], a short-lived military guild designed for the defence of [[the Pale]] (the four counties which were under secure English rule). Another useful marriage connection was through his sister Elizabeth, who married as his second wife [[Christopher Plunkett, 1st Baron of Dunsany]].
==Career==
In 1460, during the brief period when [[Richard of York]] controlled the royal government in the name of [[Henry VI of England|Henry VI]], the office of Lord Chancellor of Ireland was held by [[John Dynham, 1st Baron Dynham]], and Preston was appointed his deputy. He was summoned to sit in the [[Irish House of Lords]] "as his father and grandfather had been". The [[Parliament of Ireland]] passed acts in 1460 and 1462 restoring Gormanston's [[Order of precedence|precedence]] over [[David Fleming, 5th Baron Slane|David Fleming]], 5th [[Baron Slane]], but their dispute dragged on until 1478, when Gormanston was raised to the superior degree of [[viscount]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Richardson|first=H. G.|date=October 1943|title=The Irish Parliament Rolls of the Fifteenth Century|journal=The English Historical Review|publisher=Oxford University Press |jstor=553673|volume=58|issue=232|pages=448–461: 456}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Betham|first=William |author-link=William Betham (1779–1853)|title=The origin and history of the constitution of England, and of the early parliaments of Ireland |chapter=Henry VI |chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/originandhistor01bethgoog#page/n406/mode/2up|year=1834|publisher=William Curry|location=Dublin|pages=368–375}}</ref> The following year [[Edward IV]] appointed his second son [[Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York|Richard]], who was only four years old, [[Lord Lieutenant of Ireland]], and Gormanston was appointed Lord Deputy.<ref>Otway-Ruthven J.A. ''A History of Medieval Ireland'' Barnes and Noble reissue 1993</ref> In 1470 the Crown granted him an allowance of £20 per annum, payable from the rents of certain lands in [[County Meath]].<ref >''Calendar of Irish Chancery Letters c.1244-1509''</ref>
After the downfall of the [[House of York]], Gormanston, like most of the [[Anglo-Irish]] nobility, supported the claims of the [[pretender]] to the Crown, [[Lambert Simnel]] against the new [[Tudor dynasty]]. Simnel's cause was decisively crushed at the [[Battle of Stoke Field]] in 1487. Like nearly of his peers, Gormanston was [[pardoned]] for this act of [[treason]] in 1488 and restored to favour.
In 1493 [[Henry VII of England|Henry VII]]  reappointed him Lord Deputy: he held a [[Parliament of England|Parliament]] at [[Drogheda]], and a council at [[Trim, County Meath|Trim]], attended by [[Gerald FitzGerald, 8th Earl of Kildare]] ("the Great  Earl") and most other leading Anglo-Irish magnates, where Gormanston bound them all over to keep the peace.<ref>Otway-Ruthven '' History of Medieval Ireland''</ref> The council does not seem to have produced any useful results: soon afterwards Gormanston, Kildare and other nobles were summoned to England to account for their governance of Ireland. Gormanston died in May 1503.
[[Image:Lambert simnel.jpg|thumb|Lambert Simnel in Ireland]]
==Family==
Robert Preston married Janet Molyneaux, daughter of Sir Richard Molyneaux of [[Sefton, Merseyside|Sefton]] and his first wife Jane Haydock, daughter of Sir Gilbert Haydock of Bradley. They had at least four children:
*William Preston, 2nd Viscount Gormanston (died 1532)<ref>Burke's ''Complete Peerage''</ref>
*Elizabeth, who married [[Thomas FitzGerald of Laccagh]], [[Lord Chancellor of Ireland]]
*Anne, who married Christopher Nugent, 3rd [[Baron Delvin]]
*Katherine, who married [[Patrick Bermingham]], [[Lord Chief Justice of Ireland]].
== References ==
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{{s-ttl|title=[[Viscount Gormanston]]|years=1478–1503}}
{{s-aft|rows=2|after=[[William Preston, 2nd Viscount Gormanston|William Preston]]}}
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{{s-bef|before=[[Christopher Preston, 3rd Baron Gormanston|Christopher Preston]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Viscount Gormanston|Baron Gormanston]]|years=1450–1503}}
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[[Category:Lord chancellors of Ireland]]
[[Category:15th-century Irish politicians]]
[[Category:1503 deaths]]
[[Category:1435 births]]
[[Category:16th-century Irish politicians]]
[[Category:Police officers from County Meath]]
[[Category:Viscounts in the Peerage of Ireland]]