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Sir William Darcy (c.1460–1540) was a leading Anglo-Irish statesman of the Pale in the early sixteenth century; for many years he held the office of Vice-Treasurer of Ireland. He wrote the influential treatise ''The Decay of Ireland'', for which he has been called "the father of the movement for political reformation in Ireland".〔Lennon, Colm ''Sixteenth-century Ireland-the Incomplete Conquest'' Gill and Macmillan Dublin 1994 p.79〕 ==Background and early career== He was born at Platten in County Meath, son of John Darcy IV of Platten and Elizabeth Plunkett, daughter of Baron Killeen.〔Lodge, John and Archdall, Mervyn ''The Peerage of Ireland'' Dublin 1789 Vol.1 p.122〕 The Darcys of Platten were a junior branch of the family of Baron Darcy de Knayth, and had become one of the leading families of the Pale through intermarriage with other leading families such as the Plunketts and St Lawrences. He was in Dublin, studying law, in 1482-3, along with his cousin Thomas Kent, the future Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer.〔Kenny, Colum '' King's Inns and the Kingdom of Ireland'' Irish Academic Press Dublin 1992 p.21〕 The King's Inns was not founded until a year after Darcy's death, but some form of professional instruction for young lawyers did exist. Darcy lodged at the house of the King's Serjeant, John Estrete, with whom he studied those English legal texts considered to be essential for the education of students who actually intended to practice law.〔Kenny p.21〕 During the holidays he visited at the home of the Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, Philip Bermingham, to study dancing and the harp: these were not simply pastimes but were considered to be an essential part of a young lawyer's education.〔Kenny p.22〕 Darcy then proceeded to Lincoln's Inn, where he was enrolled in 1485; he was fined for unspecified offences in Trinity Term and returned to Ireland soon after.〔Kenny p.22〕 He was a protégé of Gerald FitzGerald, 8th Earl of Kildare who for much of the period 1478–1513 was so powerful that he was called "the uncrowned King of Ireland". Darcy assisted the Earl in two notable ventures: the failed attempt to put the pretender Lambert Simnel on the English throne, and the Battle of Knockdoe in 1504 where the Earl crushed the power of the Burkes of Clanricarde.〔Lennon p.73〕 He sat on the Earl's household council and at his request was made Vice-Treasurer of Ireland. After the 8th Earl died in 1513, relations between Darcy and the Kildare family declined. The 8th Earl's son and heir Gerald FitzGerald, 9th Earl of Kildare was generally considered a man of intelligence, charm and diplomatic skill, but there seems to have been ill-feeling between himself and Darcy, who lost both the office of Vice-Treasurer and his place on the Earl's council.〔Lennon p.9〕 This may have prompted him to write ''The Decay of Ireland'', which, though it addressed wider problems, was partly a personal attack on Kildare. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「William Darcy (died 1540)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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