Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Irland, John

by James Tait

IRLAND, JOHN (fl. 1480), divine and diplomatist, apparently a native of Scotland, settled in Paris, and became a doctor of the Sorbonne. A Johannes de Hirlandia, ‘baccalaureus Navarricus,’ appears in the index but not in the text of Bulæus (Hist. Univ. Paris, vol. v.) as rector of the university of Paris in 1469. Ireland's Scottish birth and proved ability caused Louis XI of France to send him to Scotland in 1480 to urge James III to declare war with England and to reconcile Alexander Stewart, duke of Albany [q. v.], with his brother, James III. In the latter object he failed, but he is said to have greatly impressed James, who induced him to return to live in Scotland, and gave him a rich benefice (Dempster, Hist. Eccl. Gentis Scotorum, No. 752). He was doubtless the Dr. John Irland, doctor of theology and rector of Hawick, who was one of the Scottish ambassadors sent in 1484 to France to receive the oath of Charles VIII to the treaty of 1483 (Crawfurd, Affairs of State, i. 45, ed. 1726; Michel, Les Écossais en France). On 23 Sept. 1487 Henry VII, at the request of King James, granted a safe-conduct to the Bishop of St. Andrews and John Irland, clerk (Fœdera, orig. ed., xii. 326). According to Dempster, Irland wrote:

1. ‘In Magistrum Sententiarum,’ in four books.
2. A book of sermons.
3. ‘Reconciliationis Modus ad Jacobum III Regem super dissidio cum Duce Albaniæ’
4. One book of letters.

[Dempster's Hist. Eccl. Gentis Scot. (Bannatyne Club), 1829; Michel's Les Écossais en France; Burton's Hist. of Scotland, iii. 22.]

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