Robert de Emeldon

Robert de Emeldon, or Embleton (died 1355) was an English-born Crown official and judge who spent much of his career in Ireland. He held several important public offices, including Attorney-General for Ireland, Lord High Treasurer of Ireland and Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer. He was a turbulent and violent man, who was guilty of at least one homicide, was imprisoned for a number of serious crimes including rape and manslaughter, and had a reputation for corruption: but he was a royal favourite of King Edward III and was thus able to survive his temporary disgrace in the early 1350s.

Early career

He took his name from his birthplace, Embleton, Northumberland.

No further details of the crime or of the victim are given, although the list of charges brought against Emeldon in 1350 included at least one charge of manslaughter. The reference to his services to the King suggests that the Crown, even at this early stage of his career, saw him as too valuable an official for his services to be lightly dispensed with. A royal pardon was relatively easy to obtain, even for such a serious crime, and this ability of serious criminals to evade justice seems to have become a matter of scandal only in the following century.

Later career In 1340, Emeldon became Chancellor of the Exchequer of Ireland, and the attached position of Clerk of the Exchequer of Pleas, and was sworn a member of the Privy Council of Ireland. He also became Archdeacon of Kells. In 1346 he was rewarded for his good services to the Crown, after he accompanied Sir Ralph d'Ufford, the Justiciar of Ireland, on a campaign against Maurice FitzGerald, 1st Earl of Desmond. During d'Ufford's brief government of Ireland (1344-6) Emeldon's own influence was at its height. and Lord High Treasurer shortly afterwards. Emeldon himself quickly embarked on an enthusiastic career of embezzlement and bribery.

Disgrace In 1350 the new Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Sir Thomas de Rokeby, launched a campaign to remove corrupt Irish Government officials, of whom the most notorious was Emeldon, who was arrested and imprisoned shortly after Rokeby's arrival in Ireland, on charges of corruption. He was also accused of refusing to fund a military expedition in County Wicklow. Emeldon, instead of immediately protesting his innocence, pleaded benefit of clergy. It is likely that some of the charges against him were true; he had of course already been pardoned for killing Ralph de Byrton in 1336. Perhaps aware that his plea might be seen as an admission of his guilt, he quickly changed his stance. He pleaded his innocence at a hearing in the ecclesiastical court of the Archbishop of Dublin, and was given absolution, and announced his willingness to appear before the King personally. The matter was accordingly referred to the King and Council.

Pardon and last years

Due to the favour he enjoyed with the King, who maintained that he was a "loyal and always faithful servant", Emeldon was soon released from prison and received a second royal pardon, and the restoration of his confiscated lands and goods, despite Rokeby's protests. He became Chief Baron in 1351 and died in office in 1355. His last years apparently passed without serious incident