Walter de la Haye
He was a man of great ambition, with a passion for acquiring land, but he was also a conscientious official who was held in high regard by the English Crown, which protected him from accusations of corruption.
[1] He also had more mundane tasks, such as the inquisition he held at New Ross in 1292 into the hotly disputed question of the ownership of a cargo of wine on the merchant ship The Alice of Harwich.
[2] His possession of substantial landed estates in Counties Waterford and Kilkenny, and his increasingly central role in Government, led to a clash with the le Poer family, whose power in the south-east of Ireland was growing steadily.
It may well have been the le Poers, aided by the Bishop of Emly, William de Clifford, who brought charges of corruption and "oppression" (the latter was a rather vague concept) against Haye in connection with his office of Escheator.
[7] Edward did tactfully suggest that Haye should spend less time sending lengthy and time-consuming reports about Irish affairs back to England.
[7] The unfortunate Nicholas de Clere, on the other hand, was arrested on similar charges of corruption, and spent his last years in prison, having failed to have proven his innocence to the King's satisfaction, and unable to pay off his massive debts to the Crown.
[8] Haye, despite his high standing at Court, made the familiar complaint of civil servants in that era that his salary was constantly in arrears.
[1] A petition of 1307 from the judge and landowner Robert Bagod the younger is now in the National Archives, and throws some light on de la Haye's duties and conduct as Escheator.
[6] Bagod petitioned the Crown to restore to him the rents, worth £100 a year, from certain lands at Baltray, County Louth, which had been assigned to Bagod by Nicholas, the late Archbishop of Armagh (died 1303) "in return for his good services", but which de la Haye as Escheator had taken into the Crown's hands, because the Archbishop did not have the King's license to make the assignment.
[15] This, however, resulted in a lawsuit brought by Juliana, widow of Thomas de Clare, who claimed that her right of dower had been overlooked; perhaps another example oh Haye's high-handed behaviour.
To strengthen her position Juliana remarried the prominent military commander Sir Adam de Cretinges, who was killed in action in 1295.
[2] James argued that on the contrary he and Margery had a daughter called Roesia who died when just two weeks old, and that therefore by law the estates were his in right of his late wife; Haye was not accused of acting corruptly, but "in ignorance of the truth".
[2] This apparently simple case was complicated by conflicting evidence as to whether Roesia ever existed (it seems that several years had elapsed since the alleged birth, so even truthful witnesses might have an imperfect recollection of events).
[20] He would no doubt have been disappointed to know that after his death his enemies the le Poers quickly acquired Kilmeadan Castle, where they remained until they were expelled by Cromwellian forces in about 1650.
His daughter Sibilla married Herbert de Marisco, a man of bad character, against whom serious crimes including rape and kidnapping were alleged.
