Legal Identity and 13th-Century English Ireland

Abstract

The study of legal status in 13th-century English Ireland has suffered from a lack of law-in-action methodology, so many 19th-century assumptions have endured without critique. This article sorts out defensive pleas and petitions from court judgments, and applies decolonial and intersectionalfeminist methodologies to the terminology regarding the medieval courts and peoples. It defines legal freedom under medieval English law in Ireland and delineates the methods used by the courts to determine legal freedom. A critical, forensic study of the surviving court rolls has revealed that there were several legal identities (generes) allowed to use the English royal courts in Ireland (legally »free«) and intersections with and within these categories. The court rolls also demonstrate that legal identity had different consequences in criminal proceedings than in civil, and that categories such as »the English« or »the Gaels« in medieval Ireland are too broad; the interaction of factors such as identity, freedom or unfreedom, gender, and social status have to be taken into account.