Robert Dyke

Robert Dyke, Dyck or Dyche (died 1449) was an English-born cleric and judge who held high office in fifteenth-century Ireland. He was appointed to the offices of Archdeacon of Dublin, Chancellor of the Exchequer of Ireland, Lord High Treasurer of Ireland, and Master of the Rolls in Ireland, as well as holding several Church benefices.

Career

Little is known of his life before 1415, in which year he is recorded as an official at the English Court. His first link to Ireland was apparently forged in that year, when he and John Gland were given joint custody of the lands formerly held by Katherine Bernevall, widow of Reginald Bernevall, at Drimnagh and Ballyfermot, Dublin. This John Gland was one of the Barons of the Court of Exchequer (Ireland), having been appointed to the Court earlier the same year, and was also Chief Auditor of the Accounts of the Exchequer. His appointment was originally stated to be "during good behaviour", but in 1430 he was made Chancellor of the Exchequer for life. He had probably arrived in Ireland by 1431 when he became Archdeacon of Dublin. He was made parson of St. Patrick's Church, Trim, County Meath (now Trim Cathedral) in 1435, despite strong objections from the Archdeacon of Meath, William Yonge, who had nominated his own chaplain, John Ardagh, for the living. St Patrick's Church, Trim, now Trim Cathedral. Dyke was a parson here in the 1430s.

He became Master of the Rolls in 1436, with a salary of 5 shillings a day, and he acted as Deputy to the Lord Chancellor of Ireland in 1447. He was present at a crucial Council meeting in 1442, at which very serious accusations were made against Richard Wogan, the Lord Chancellor, whereby he was deemed to have vacated office.

Political Controversy Irish politics from the late 1410s to the 1440s was dominated by the Butler–Talbot feud, led by James Butler, 4th Earl of Ormond on the one side, and John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury and his formidable brother Richard, Archbishop of Dublin, on the other. It was almost impossible for any Irish Crown official to avoid being drawn into the feud: all of them were forced to take sides. Dyke was a Butler partisan and is said to have particularly offended the quarrelsome Archbishop Talbot: among a long list of charges made against Talbot by the Irish Parliament in 1442 was that he had assaulted Dyke and Hugh Banent (or Bavent), Dyke's successor as Lord Treasurer. Since Talbot, despite his high clerical office, was notoriously hot-tempered, the charge may well be true.

Dyke died in 1449. He was praised as "a man of honest life and conversation" who had served the King for many years, and filled several important Crown offices with honour.