KILKENNY, STATUTE OF, the name given to a body of laws promulgated in 1366 with the object of strengthening the English authority in Ireland. In 1361, Edward III. sent his second son, Lionel, duke of Clarence, who was already married to an Irish heiress, to represent him in Ireland. From the English point of view the country was in an unsatisfactory condition. Lawless and predatory, the English settlers were hardly distin guishable from the native Irish, and the authority of the English king over both had almost vanished. Lionel and his advisers sum moned a parliament to meet at Kilkenny early in 1366 and here the statute of Kilkenny was passed into law. It began by relating how the existing lawlessness was due to the malign influence of the Irish and, like Magna Carta, its first positive provision de clared that the church should be free. As a prime remedy for the prevailing evils all marriages between the two races were f or bidden. Englishmen must not speak the Irish tongue, nor receive Irish minstrels into their dwellings, nor even ride in the Irish fashion; while to give or sell horses or armour to the Irish was made a treasonable offence. Moreover English and not the Brehon
law was to be employed, and no Irishman could legally be re ceived into a religious house, nor presented to a benefice. The statute also contained clauses for compelling the English settlers to keep the laws. For each county four wardens of the peace were to be appointed, while the sheriffs were to hold their tourns twice a year and were not to oppress the people by their exactions. An attempt was made to prevent the emigration of labourers, and finally the spiritual arm was invoked to secure obedience by threats of excommunication. The statute, although continually re-enacted represents an ideal rather than a practical legislative measure, and under the conditions then prevalent in Ireland little could be done toward carrying out its provisions.