much influence at Whitehall. When Bysse died in 1680 Charles II chose Henry Hene to replace him. Reynell was however made a baronet (which was not a common honour for an Irish judge at the time) in 1678, and a member of the Privy Council of Ireland in 1682. Despite his alleged Catholic sympathies, he was unacceptable as a judge to King James II. He was dismissed from the Bench in 1686; some said that the true reason for this was that his wealth and independence of mind had earned him the enmity of the new Lord Deputy, Tyrconnell. With little to keep him in Ireland (his wife had died some years earlier), he returned to England and remained there until after the Glorious Revolution of 1688. He was elected to the post-Revolution Parliament as member for the family borough of Ashburton in 1690, his elder brother Sir Thomas Reynell having stood down as MP to accommodate him. He was active on several committees, especially those which dealt with Irish affairs. Thomas Osborne, 1st Duke of Leeds, the effective leader of the new administration, regarded him as a reliable Government supporter. Lord Chief Justice In 1691, having demonstrated his loyalty to the new administration, he received his overdue promotion as Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, but he had a somewhat troubled tenure in that office. While his legal ability was not in dispute, he had made numerous enemies. In politics, he was generally seen as a Tory at a time when the Whigs were the dominant party, and in 1693 he was openly accused of being a Jacobite. In 1692 an anonymous memorandum addressed to the King dealing with the alleged misgovernment of Ireland named Reynell as one of four senior judges who were guilty of numerous acts of injustice, and in particular, were guilty of favouring Irish interests over English. The King did not take this accusation seriously, but Reynell's enemies in England blamed him for the Irish Parliament's failure to ratify the Treaty of Limerick, and more generally for his failure to take any steps towards the peaceful settlement of Ireland. The Dublin government, far better informed on Irish affairs, put most of the blame for the failure to achieve a settlement, and particularly the failure to ratify the Treaty, on John Osborne, the Prime Serjeant, who was dismissed from office in 1692 for gross insubordination. There was