John Prene

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

John Prene was an Irish church leader who served as Dean of St Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin from 1401 to 1428, Archdeacon of Armagh from 1431 to 1439, and Archbishop of Armagh from 1439 until his death on 13 June 1443. His appointment as Dean by the Pope violated an agreement with the English Crown that the Cathedral Chapter alone would elect the Dean, but King Henry IV later confirmed Prene’s appointment and pardoned those involved. He may have been the nephew of John Prene, Archdeacon of Meath. He studied at Oxford, earning degrees in civil and canon law. From 1425 he served at the court of the Archbishop of Armagh, and in 1428 Archbishop Swayne sent him to Rome to answer complaints against the Archbishop. He was seen as Swayne’s likely successor; as Archbishop he was considered conscientious but not very effective in his duties.