So much for the passing of the Act with “no difficulty.” How it was intended to work by Henry VII. we cannot tell, but the violent methods of later Tudor sovereigns respected no barriers. Whenever Poyning’s Act stood in their way, the first remedy was an Act for its “repeal”—that is, an “exposition” how it was to be understood, or an enactment that all statutes of that Parliament were valid, “notwithstanding Poyning’s Act.” No Tudor ever proposed to “repeal” that part of the statute which limited the freedom of Parliament: but only to abrogate the formalities which interfered with his own direct method of government. The Dublin Parliament, for its part, clearly saw that if the Act gave a tremendous power to the Crown, it yet held provisions which were a protection, so far as they went, from arbitrary tyranny. The preparing, before a Parliament could be called, of Acts to which the Seal of Ireland had to be affixed before they went to receive the Seal of England, assured some discussion in Ireland, some degree of publicity, and some hindrance to unexpected laws sprung upon it by a foreign and uncontrolled Executive, and rushed through by a packed majority. Parliament, in fact, held that law and recognised order were safeguards to liberty; and its battle in Dublin was for the security of law, even of Poyning’s Law, against the mere will of the King and his ministers: a motive neither trivial nor irrational.
The first conflict arose with the Parliament of 1536-7, which was called to establish what we may call the Protestant succession, to declare Henry head of the Church, to order the suppression of abbeys, and to decree vast confiscations in Leinster to the King’s benefit (in many cases estates of members of the Parliament), with the purpose of new “Plantation.” It was not likely that such laws would be peaceably drawn up in Dublin and offered to Henry in the form he preferred. On the first day of its session, May 1st, 1536, therefore, the “repeal of Poyning’s Act” was ordered—that is, to declare it void for that Parliament. The experiment was new and untried, and the Houses obeyed. By the “repeal” Henry and Cromwell were set free from every restriction. They could send over new and unforeseen bills, neither known nor discussed in Ireland, without agreement with the Irish Council, at any time before or after Parliament opened, and could alter bills during the session as they chose. Every shred of protection to the framing of bills in Ireland, or their discussion there, disappeared. The usurped powers were used to the uttermost. In seventeen days ten Acts had passed the Commons. Cromwell wrote to delay the Act for the Succession if it was still in an incomplete stage, probably for some changes. The King wrote to desire an astounding Act to confer on himself all the land in Ireland. But resistance had already begun. Parliament had attempted to protect the country by providing in their Repealing Act that a number of matters should be excluded from its operation, such as the liberties of boroughs, etc., and that no laws should be enacted by this Parliament but such as were for the honour of the King, the increase of his revenue, _and_ the commonweal of the land. As Acts poured over from England members pleaded that they were contrary to these conditions, and prepared to carry the matter to a court of law. The struggle lasted eighteen months. Parliament was adjourned, contrary to law, six times in the next year. Finally Commissioners were sent over in September, 1537, carrying with them a series of Acts drawn up in England, and added others of their own devising; all to be passed “notwithstanding Poyning’s Act.” The limitations which Parliament had attempted to set up in their “Repealing” Act were set aside by a new “repeal,” which declared the “mere truth” of the first to be that every Bill was valid which concerned _either_ the King’s honour, _or_ the increase of his revenue, _or_ the common weal of the land: and that anyone who brought the question to a suit in any court of law should suffer as a felon.