Richard Rede

Richard Rede (died after 1416) was a leading Irish statesman and judge of the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. He held office as Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer, Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, Deputy Lord Chancellor of Ireland and Deputy Treasurer of Ireland.

He was born in County Meath. Rede (also spelt Reid) had been a common Irish name, especially in Ulster, since the thirteenth century. Little seems to be known about his parents. His wife was Elizabeth Netterville, daughter and heiress of Richard Netterville of Dowth. One branch of the Netterville family would later become one of the most prominent landowning families in Meath, and acquired the title Viscount Netterville.

Rede is best remembered for being kidnapped and held for ransom by the Fleming family, Barons of Slane. They extracted a large sum of money from him, and despite his outraged protests, escaped punishment.

The Netterville inheritance

Elizabeth Netterville, whose father died when she was very young, was made a royal ward. The question of her inheritance, which was considerable, led to bitter disputes between neighbouring landowners, each of whom hoped to gain control of her estate by marrying her to his own heir.

King Richard II appointed John Humbleton, one of his esquires of the body, as her guardian in 1394, after having withdrawn a previous grant of guardianship made to Thomas Butler, a younger son of James Butler, 2nd Earl of Ormond. Elizabeth was kidnapped by members of the Darcy and Cusack families, who no doubt hoped to gain control of her lands. She was soon released, but six years later the Crown was informed that these families still hoped to cheat her out of her inheritance. By 1400 Humbleton, no doubt finding that the wardship was more trouble than it was worth, had granted custody of Elizabeth to Rede, who married her soon afterwards, but this was not the end of the trouble over her inheritance. In 1405 he was required to go to England "to prosecute certain business especially touching the King".

Abduction and ransom

On 5 April 1401 while he was travelling from Drogheda to Trim, Rede was abducted at Rathfeigh near Skryne by Thomas Fleming, 2nd Baron Slane, and imprisoned in nearby Crewyn Castle, which belonged to Thomas's son Christopher. and he was also robbed of £200 and numerous official records. What lay behind the episode, which was exceptional even in that violent age, is unclear. It has been suggested that the Flemings, like the Darcys and Cusacks, had previously had hopes of gaining the Netterville lands which Rede had acquired through his marriage to Elizabeth Netterville: while the latter families' abduction of Elizabeth in 1394 seems to have been fruitless, the Flemings' abduction of her husband brought them a substantial profit. and in October 1401 Lord Slane, on payment of £30 (a derisory sum compared to the £1200 he had extracted from Rede), was duly pardoned, He and his wife were both still alive in 1416, and were still expanding their holdings with purchases of land in County Louth. Richard in turn sold lands to Robert Rede, son of Philip, who may have been a cousin, in 1427.