Ralph de Norwich

[3] In 1229 he was one of a number of senior officials who advised the Irish bishops and clergy on levying the tax or "aid" of one-sixteenth on ecclesiastical benefices.

[3] The tax was highly successful, and in 1230 the Irish administration sent the King 2000 marks (a very large sum for the time, especially in Ireland, which was chronically short of money) collected by the Justiciar, Richard Mór de Burgh, from the proceeds.

[1] The reports gained so much credence that to prevent the sequestration of his Irish estates, the King issued a writ proclaiming that he was alive and well.

[1] No doubt due to his long experience as a judge he was appointed Lord Chancellor of Ireland in 1249,[1] with a salary of 60 marks a year, until more generous provision could be made.

[3] This low opinion of Ralph is echoed by the chronicler Matthew Paris, who described him as witty and sumptuous in his lifestyle, and more suited to life at the King's Court than to a hall of learning.

[3] Paris, like the Pope, condemned the election to high clerical office of a man who was "wholly secular" and "occupied entirely with the custody of the King's Irish Exchequer".