Walter de Cusack

Walter de Cusack (c.1270- 1334) was an Anglo-Irish judge, magnate and military commander of the fourteenth century.

Family background and early life Walter de Cusack was a younger son of Sir Andrew Cusack of Gerrardstown, County Meath. He belonged to a leading Anglo-Irish family, the Cusacks, who came to Ireland soon after the Norman invasion in the late twelfth century and settled mainly in County Meath. Sir Andrew was a younger son of Geoffrey de Cusack, Lord of Killeen.

Military and State service Walter was summoned by King Edward I for military service in the First War of Scottish Independence in 1303 and 1307, and probably on two or three later occasions. He sat in the Irish Parliament in 1310. There is an interesting instruction in the Patent Roll to Walter and his fellow justices to decide cases concerning real property according to Irish law rather than English law: this is evidence that the two legal systems were already quite distinct. For this reason his loyalty to King Edward II in the final crisis of his reign, which ended with the King's deposition and murder at Mortimer's hands, was questioned: About a year after the final defeat of the invasion, John petitioned the Council for compensation for his own and his father's losses in the King's service. The Privy Council, noting that John, but not apparently his father, was present at the Battle of Faughart in October 1318, where Edward Bruce, the leader of the invading army, was killed, recommended that John be awarded 50 marks (half what he had asked for). ) of William Pylate of Pylatestown (now Pelletstown, near Cabra, Dublin).