GRANTS OF SPIRITUAL POWER OF LORD DELVIN & EARL WESTMEATH

Re: Transfer of Spiritual and Temporal Sovereignty of Annaly (Teffia/Anghaile) to the Barons Delvin (Nugent Family), Including Ecclesiastical, Monastic, Manorial, and Sacred Rights

I. INTRODUCTION

This legal brief examines:

1. Why the English Crown and Church transferred BOTH spiritual and temporal authority over Annaly (Teffia/Anghaile) to the Barons Delvin,

2. How Ireland’s early Christian heritage made religious rights essential to sovereignty,

3. How the Nugent family was granted not only temporal offices but also abbeys, sacred sites, tithes, and ecclesiastical patronage,

4. How these combined grants constituted a legal replacement of the Ó Fearghail (O’Farrell) princely sovereignty.

This brief demonstrates that the grants to the Barons Delvin were designed to transfer the full Christian–Gaelic governance system—not land alone.

II. IRELAND AS THE FIRST CHRISTIAN NATION OF EUROPE (Outside Rome and Greece)

A core fact:

Ireland became a fully Christian nation in the 5th century—centuries earlier than Germany, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, and parts of France.

• St. Patrick’s episcopal foundations (e.g., Ardagh) were active before the Slavic, Norse, or Germanic conversions.

• Irish monasticism re-Christianized Europe through missions to Gaul, Germany, and the Alps.

• Gaelic princes ruled with ecclesiastical legitimacy as well as secular might.

Thus:

✔ Sovereignty in Ireland was never purely secular.

✔ Spiritual authority was as important as temporal command.

✔ Sacred sites were legally inseparable from princely power.

This explains why the Crown needed to seize church rights, abbeys, sacred lands, burial grounds, and ecclesiastical privileges before Gaelic sovereignty could be extinguished.

Nowhere was this more true than in Annaly, a Christian principality whose prince ruled with sacred sanction from Ardagh.

III. THE GAELIC PRINCIPALITY OF ANNALY (ANGHAILE)

For nearly 1,000 years, the Ó Fearghail dynasty ruled Annaly through:

• Christian patronage,

• control of abbeys,

• command of clan territories,

• ownership of manors,

• rights to tithes,

• burial grounds and sacred forts,

• church lands and monastic islands,

• ancient Christian holy sites.

Their temporal rule (rí túaithe / prince) was inseparable from these ecclesiastical foundations.

Thus, to extinguish Gaelic sovereignty:

The Crown had to capture the religious ecosystem, not merely the land.

IV. THE CROWN’S LEGAL STRATEGY: TRANSFER BOTH SPIRITUAL AND TEMPORAL AUTHORITY

The English Crown and Church granted to the Barons Delvin the ENTIRE sacred and administrative infrastructure of Annaly, including:

✔ Abbeys

✔ Monastic lands

✔ Advowsons (church appointment rights)

✔ Tithes and ecclesiastical revenues

✔ Holy islands

✔ Ancient burial grounds

✔ Sacred wells and holy precincts

✔ Manors and courts

This “bundle of dignities” was intended to replace the Gaelic prince with a Crown-loyal feudal successor-in-title.

V. SPECIFIC SPIRITUAL & SACRED GRANTS TO THE NUGENTS (BARONS DELVIN)

A. MONASTERIES, ABBEYS & ECCLESIASTICAL HOUSES

Documents record Nugent possession or patronage rights over:

• Abbey of Ardagh – spiritual capital of Annaly

• Abbey of Inchmore / Inis Mór (Lough Ree island monastery)

• Abbey of Inis Clothran (St. Diarmaid’s island)

• Other monastic granges within Slewght William and Teffia

These abbeys were not merely religious buildings—they were:

• legal centers,

• economic centers,

• royal burial grounds,

• repositories of sacred legitimacy.

B. ADVOWSONS (RIGHT TO APPOINT CLERGY)

The Nugents held multiple advowsons, including:

• Rights to nominate clergy in Ardagh-associated parishes

• Rights to install Crown-loyal vicars and rectors

• Rights to control church land leases

Advowsons were power equal to princely spiritual patronage.

C. TITHES & ECCLESIASTICAL REVENUES

Crown patents granted Nugents:

• Tithes from various parishes in Annaly

• Church rents

• Payments formerly owed to O’Farrell patrons

This replicated the Gaelic prince’s ecclesiastical income stream.

D. HOLY ISLANDS

They received control or significant rights over:

• Inchcleraun (Inis Clothran) – sacred monastic island

• Inchmore – large inhabited island with abbey

• Islands in Lough Ree attached to monastic houses

• Other minor Christian islands with burial grounds

These islands were centers of early Christianity and had enormous symbolic value.

E. ANCIENT BURIAL AREAS & SACRED GROUNDS

Nugent grants included:

• Ringfort burial sites

• Monastic cemeteries

• O’Farrell ancestral burial lands

• Areas designated “holy” or “ecclesiastical”

Control of burial grounds was a core part of Gaelic legitimacy, as ancestral interment equalled sovereignty.

F. MANORS, MARKETS, & COURTS

Nugents gained:

• Curia Baronis (Court Baron)

• Court Leet

• Market of Longford

• Manors of Granard, Lissardowlan, and O’Farrell estate centers

• Fairs & mercantile rights

These rights were equivalent to a small autonomous principality under Crown law.

VI. THE TEMPORAL GRANT: CHIEF AND CAPTAIN OF SLEWGHT WILLIAM

Queen Elizabeth’s 1565 grant made the Nugent baron:

✔ Chief of the Country

✔ Captain of Slewght William (Clan William)

This was the exact secular office held by the O’Farrell prince.

It transferred:

• military authority

• civil governance

• clan justice

• princely jurisdiction

to the Baron Delvin.

This was the legal replacement of the Gaelic prince.

VII. WHY BOTH SETS OF RIGHTS WERE NECESSARY

1. Ireland was deeply Christian earlier than Europe → sovereignty required sacred legitimacy.

2. Annaly was a Christian principality → abbeys and sacred lands were sources of princely power.

3. The O’Farrells ruled through BOTH Church and clan → both institutions had to be seized.

4. The Nugents needed BOTH to be recognized as successors → spiritual + temporal grants.

5. The Honour / Seignory required both jurisdictions → ecclesiastical + feudal authority.

Thus, the Crown executed a total transfer, overcoming 1,000 years of Christian–Gaelic governance.

VIII. CONCLUSION

The English Crown and Church made exceptional efforts to grant the Barons Delvin everything once held by the O’Farrell princes—including abbeys, sacred islands, burial sites, tithes, advowsons, manors, fairs, and princely captaincies—because:

✔ Ireland was one of Europe’s earliest and strongest Christian nations

✔ Gaelic sovereignty was inseparable from Christian sacred authority

✔ Annaly’s prince ruled through BOTH Church and clan

✔ Ardagh and Slewght William were twin pillars of sovereignty

✔ Without both, the O’Farrells could not be lawfully displaced

✔ With both, the Nugents became the Crown’s legal successor-in-title

✔ The combined grants formed the Feudal Honour & Seignory of Longford–Annaly

Thus, the Nugent Barons Delvin were intentionally installed as the ecclesiastical, spiritual, temporal, and feudal successors to the ancient Christian princes of Annaly.