Fitzralph, Richard (c. 1295–1360)

Irish scholarly archbishop of Armagh, born in Dundalk, County Louth. Educated at Oxford, Fitzralph was successively chancellor of Oxford University (1333), archdeacon of Chester (c. 1335), dean of Lichfield (1337), and archbishop of Armagh (1346), from which position he asserted his oversight over the archbishop of Dublin. In 1357 he was summoned to the papal court in Avignon, France, over his views that mendicant vows of poverty were probably unscriptural; although he was not condemned, he was never allowed to return to Armagh. His remains were transferred to St Nicholas, Dundalk, in 1370.