John Alen

The Most Reverend

John Alen

LL.D.
The Most Reverend; John Alen; LL.D.
Roman Catholic
Archdiocese	Dublin
Appointed	3 September 1529
In office	1529-1534
Predecessor	Hugh Inge
Successor	George Browne
Other post(s)	Lord Chancellor of Ireland
Orders
Ordination	25 August 1499
Consecration	13 March 1530
Personal details
Born	1476; Coltishall, Norfolk, England
Died	28 July 1534; Clontarf, Dublin, Ireland
Nationality	English

John Alen (1476 – 28 July 1534) was an English

Archbishop of Dublin and Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and was a member of the Privy Council of Ireland

. In the latter office, for a few years, he played a central role in the government of Ireland.

He was murdered during the Rebellion of

Earl of Kildare

, who had in fact died a natural death. Despite his grievance against the archbishop, Thomas always maintained that he had intended to spare Alen's life but that his order (delivered in Irish) to "take him away" had been misinterpreted by his followers as a command to kill him.

Life

He was born in

Archbishop Warham of Canterbury. He was ordained as a priest on 25 August 1499, and held various parochial benefices until 1522, about which time he attracted the attention of Cardinal Wolsey, whose helpful commissary he was in the matter of the suppression of the minor monasteries. As such, his conduct, says James Gairdner, "gave rise to a considerable outcry, and complaints were made about it to the king".^[2]

He continued to receive ecclesiastical advancement, and assisted Wolsey in his legatine functions, among other things in the suit instituted by the cardinal against

Catharine of Aragon declared invalid without her knowledge. In the summer of the same year he accompanied the cardinal on his mission to France, and finally (August 1528) was rewarded with the archepiscopal see of Dublin.^[2]

Soon after his arrival, he was invested with the Chancellorship. For a short time until Wolsey's downfall, Alen was a dominant figure in the Irish administration, forming one of an "inner council of three" on the Privy Council of Ireland. In 1532, Alan was relieved of the office of Chancellor through the influence of Gerald FitzGerald, 9th Earl of Kildare.^[3]

He was relieved from asserting, against

Statutes of Provisors and Praemunire, in recognizing the legatine authority of Wolsey, then, in the king's eyes, a heinous crime, and a reason for the cardinal's indictment.^[2]

Alen survived Wolsey's downfall, but his political influence was never the same again.

Silken Thomas

As a former follower of Wolsey, he was hated by the followers of the great Irish house of Kildare (the FitzGeralds), whose chief, Gerald FitzGerald, 9th Earl of Kildare, had been imprisoned by Wolsey in the Tower of London from 1526 to 1530, and again, by the King, early in 1534. Soon a false rumour spread through Ireland that the earl had been put to death, and Earl Gerald's son, "Silken Thomas", rose in revolt in 1534.

Murder

The Archbishop, anticipating a siege of Dublin Castle, attempted to escape to England.^[3] He embarked at Dame Gate, but his boat was driven ashore at Clontarf.^[4] He fled for refuge to the home of his friend Thomas St. Lawrence at Artane Castle near Dublin, but his hiding place was betrayed.^[5] Lord Thomas arrived before the house in hot pursuit of him. The Archbishop was dragged out in his shirt, and, falling on his knees, begged for mercy. Archbishop Alen was killed by two retainers of "Silken Thomas" Fitzgerald, John Teeling and Nicholas Wafer, at Artane Castle, on 28 July 1534. Whether Silken Thomas actually ordered the killing or not remains a subject of dispute:^[2] there is a well-known tradition that Teeling and Wafer misunderstood his command in Gaelic to "take this fellow away" as a command to murder him.^[a] Lord Thomas subsequently insisted that he meant only that the Archbishop should be removed to custody. He afterwards sent his chaplain to Rome to obtain absolution for him from the excommunication incurred by this murder.^[2]

Character

Sir James Ware says of Alen that "he was of a turbulent spirit, but a man of hospitality and learning, and a diligent inquirer into antiquities".^[3]

Works

Alen wrote a treatise on the

chartularium of the archdiocese, or collection of its most important documents, and the latter is a list of the parishes of the see as it was in 1530.^[6]

Notes

^ James Gairdner in the DNB wrote "The archbishop knelt before [Lord Thomas] in his shirt and mantle, entreating for mercy. But the followers of Lord Thomas, mistaking, as some say, an order from their master, which was simply to take him away and put him in confinement, butchered him and most of his attendants without remorse" (Gairdner 1885, p. 306).

^ Alen, John, A Cambridge Alumni Database, University of Cambridge
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Shahan, Thomas. "John Allen." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. 22 Jan. 2015
^ ^a ^b ^c Webb, Alfred. "Archbishop John Allen", A Compendium of Irish Biography, M.H. Gill & Co., Dublin, 1878
^ Gairdner 1885, p. 306.
^ Ball, F. Elrington History of the Parishes of Dublin Vol. 5 1917 Dublin Alexander Thom and Co p.64
^ "Notes and queries", Oxford Journals, CLXX (mar21): 209, 1936^{[dead link]}

References

Attribution

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Shahan, Thomas Joseph (1907). "John Allen (I)". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Endnotes:
- Brady, Episcopal Succession in England, Ireland, and Scotland (Rome, 1876), I, 325 sqq.
- Gairdner, James (1885). "Allen, John (1476-1534)" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 1. pp. 305–307. ;
- Anthony à Wood
  , Athenae Oxonienses (ed. Bliss), I, 76
- C. P. Meehan
  , in tr. Daly, Rise, Increase and Fall of the Geraldines, Earls of Desmond (Dublin, 1878), 53, 54
- Ware, Annals of Ireland, ad an. 1534
- Cox, Hibernia Anglicana, 234
- Ware, Irish Bishops (ed. Harris, Dublin, 1764), 347
- Alphons Bellesheim, Gesch. D. kathol. Kirche in Irland (Mainz, 1890), II, 5, 6, 16, 17.

Catholic Church titles
Preceded by Hugh Inge	Archbishop of Dublin 1528–1534	Succeeded by George Browne as Anglican Archbishop (1536)
Preceded by Hugh Inge	Archbishop of Dublin 1528–1534	Succeeded by Hugh Curwen as Catholic Archbishop (1555)

[6] James Gairdner in the DNB wrote "The archbishop knelt before [Lord Thomas] in his shirt and mantle, entreating for mercy. But the followers of Lord Thomas, mistaking, as some say, an order from their master, which was simply to take him away and put him in confinement, butchered him and most of his attendants without remorse" (Gairdner 1885, p. 306).

[1] Alen, John, A Cambridge Alumni Database, University of Cambridge

[Shahan-2] Shahan, Thomas. "John Allen." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. 22 Jan. 2015

[Webb-3] Webb, Alfred. "Archbishop John Allen", A Compendium of Irish Biography, M.H. Gill & Co., Dublin, 1878

[FOOTNOTEGairdner1885306-4] Gairdner 1885, p. 306.

[5] Ball, F. Elrington History of the Parishes of Dublin Vol. 5 1917 Dublin Alexander Thom and Co p.64

[7] "Notes and queries", Oxford Journals, CLXX (mar21): 209, 1936^{[dead link]}

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[a]

[6]

v t e Pre-Reformation Bishops and Archbishops of Dublin
Bishops	Dúnán Gilla Pátraic Donngus Ua hAingliu Samuel Ua hAingliu Gréne
Archbishops	Gréne Lorcán Ua Tuathail John Comyn Henry de Loundres Luke Fulk Basset John de Derlington John de Sandford William Houghton Richard de Ferings John de Leche Alexander de Bicknor John de St Paul Thomas Minot Robert Wikeford Robert Waldby Richard Northalis Thomas Cranley Richard Talbot Michael Tregury John Walton Walter Fitzsimon William Rokeby Hugh Inge John Alen

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