A Rutland Quarrel, the Court of Chivalry and the Irish Peerage during Charles I's Personal Rule

Abstract

In July 1635 Sir Henry Mynne defamed William Lord Sherard at the Rutland assizes and set in motion a train of events which reached up to Westminster and across the prerogative court system to highlight some of the more obscure aspects of Charles I's Personal Rule. The case was originally tried in Star Chamber, but then in February 1638 was passed on to the newly reformed Court of Chivalry where it set an important precedent for establishing the court's right to try defamation suits. The trial also became an example of the crown's determination to bolster the honour of the peerage in the face of insults by social inferiors. And, more broadly, the treatment of Sherard offers an insight into Charles's handling of the Irish peerage and the vexed issue of how they were to be ranked in relation to their English counterparts. It illustrates the experiences of a group who, in spite of their pledges of loyalty and support for the crown and prerogative government, found their interests shunted aside as the king promoted the welfare of the more powerful and influential English peerage. Charles's efforts to promote the welfare of the nobility and take them into partnership with the crown formed an important strand of royal policy during the Personal Rule. This case reveals some of its successes and failures.