Robert Wikeford

Robert Wikeford or de Wikeford (c.1320 – 29 August 1390) was an English-born diplomat, lawyer and judge, who became Lord Chancellor of Ireland and Archbishop of Dublin.

Early career

He was born at Wickford in Essex, a member of the de Wickford or Wykeford family who are said to have been Lords of the Manor of Wickford Hall. He was a fellow of Merton College, Oxford c.1340/1, and on his death bequeathed the College his altar cloths. He was awarded a doctorate of law before 1368. He became a clerk in the English Chancery, and was appointed Archdeacon of Winchester in 1368.

He was clearly a man of considerable diplomatic and military ability, and was entrusted by King Edward III with a number of diplomatic missions, notably to Count Louis II of Flanders, Joanna, Duchess of Brabant and King Peter IV of Aragon. In 1373 he was made Constable of Bordeaux and then joined with the Seneschal in the government of Aquitaine. The King referred to Wikeford as "our beloved clerk", and he is described as Doctor of both laws (i.e. canon and common law).

O'Flanagan This episode suggests that Wikeford, though a valued Crown servant, was not popular.

He was also sued by another Royal clerk called Thomas, who obtained a judgement against him for £10 (a large sum in the fourteenth century) shortly before his translation to Dublin. as was then the normal practice, and a year later he was made Lord Chancellor of Ireland. In 1378 the Crown ordered payment to him of his arrears of salary as Chancellor in the amount of £10, part payment of a full year's salary of £40. An identical order was made the following year. He presided over the session of Parliament which was held at Naas in 1382/3, whose members urged him to remain in Ireland, where they would have the benefit of his wisdom and experience. Courtenay complained about Wikeford to the King. Unlike his grandfather Edward III, Richard did not especially value Wikeford's services to the Crown, and censured him severely for exceeding his powers. Wikeford also complained to the Privy Council that Dagworth had unjustly seized the manor of Swords, which had been granted to Wikeford by the Crown for life and was the heart of the Archbishop's traditional estates. As for Courtenay, he had a reputation for being rash, hot-tempered and temperamental, and from what we know about Wikeford he seems to have been rather similar in character. As Archbishop he showed the harsher side of his character by expelling all beggars from his diocese in 1376, despite protests that many of them, so far from being "idle vagabonds", had worked hard on the restoration of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, in the time of Wikeford's predecessor Thomas Minot.