Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Loundres, Henry de
LOUNDRES, HENRY de (d. 1228), archbishop of Dublin, was archdeacon of Stafford in the early part of the reign of John, and was frequently employed by that king in public affairs. Towards the close of 1212 the archbishopric of Dublin was conferred on him. In May 1213 he was an attesting witness to the execution of the instrument of fealty from King John to the pope, and in the following July he received the appointment of justiciary or viceroy of Ireland. He was at Runnymede in June 1215, at the delivery of ‘Magna Charta,’ in the preamble to which his name stands second among those of the councillors at whose instance that charter was granted. In 1216 he acted as one of the delegates from John to Pope Honorius III, by whom in the succeeding year he was appointed legate to Ireland. Archbishop Henry entered again on the office of justiciary in Ireland in 1219, and evinced much energy in connection with both ecclesiastical and civil affairs there. A series of regulations for ecclesiastics of the diocese of Dublin was promulgated by him. He also remodelled the constitution and amplified the resources of the cathedral of St. Patrick, Dublin, and his arrangements were ratified by a papal bull. His legatine powers terminated in 1220, but he continued to act as justiciary till 1224, when the office was transferred by the king to William Marshall (d. 1231) [q. v.], earl of Pembroke.
Archbishop Henry was present in 1225 at the opening service of a new cathedral at Salisbury, on the constitution of which he had modelled his arrangements for St. Patrick's, Dublin. As prelate or justiciary Archbishop Henry was occasionally embarrassed in vindicating the rights and properties of the crown or of his see against the claims of the citizens of Dublin (cf. Gilbert, History of the Viceroys of Ireland, and Facsimiles of National MSS. of Ireland). The name of ‘Scorchvillein,’ applied to the archbishop, was said to have originated in a dispute with some of the tenants of his see, whose leases he attempted to burn. He died in 1228, and was interred in the cathedral of Christ Church, Dublin, under a wooden monument, which disappeared before the seventeenth century.
Several ecclesiastical instruments executed by him are in the ‘Chartularies of St. Mary's Abbey, Dublin,’ and the ‘Register of the Abbey of St. Thomas, Dublin,’ printed in Rolls Series, 1884–9. An ancient drawing in colours of Loundres is reproduced in ‘Facsimiles of National MSS. of Ireland,’ pt. iv. 2.
[Crede Mihi, MS.; Archives of See of Dublin; Ware de Præsulibus Hiberniæ, 1665; Mason's Hist. of St. Patrick's Cathedral, 1826; Rot. Litt. Claus.; Patent. et Chart. 1833, 5, 7; Theiner's Vet. Monum. 1864; Gilbert's Hist. Viceroys Ireland, 1865; Hist. and Municip. Documents, Ireland, 1870; Hist. MSS. Comm. 10th Rep. App. v.]