Netterville, Luke (a. 1180–1227), archbishop of Armagh, was apparently born in Ireland of an Anglo-Norman family, and became the first ‘Englishman’ to hold the see of Armagh and the only one to do so in the thirteenth century. He appears as the archdeacon of Armagh as early as 1207 and witnessed several grants made by his predecessor, Archbishop Echdonn Mac Gilla Uidir (qv). Netterville was elected to succeed Mac Gilla Uidir by the chapter of Armagh sometime before 1 August 1217. Although the election was canonically valid, it was quashed because the chapter had failed to seek a licence from the English king to elect a new archbishop. A second election was held, with licence to elect, and Netterville was recognised as archbishop by the king (6 July 1218) and consecrated by Stephen Langton, archbishop of Canterbury.
Although Netterville was primate of Ireland, he was overshadowed in almost every respect by the archbishop of Dublin, Henry of London (qv), who served as papal legate to Ireland and justiciar, and had been granted the temporalities of Armagh to hold during the vacancy in Armagh. Although Netterville was granted the temporalities (September 1219), he found it difficult to prise them from the grip of Henry of London, and was still fighting to gain all of them at his death. He chose to reside in Drogheda, but was forced to flee to the safety of the priory of Llanthony Secunda (Gloucester) during the uprisings of Hugh de Lacy (qv). During the latter part of his primacy he was concerned with the dispute with the bishop of Clogher, Donatus Ó Fidabra (qv), over the ecclesiastical control of Louth, but the issue was far from settled before his death on 17 April 1227. Although the archbishop played a vital role in the foundation of a Dominican friary in Drogheda in 1224, he chose to be buried in the Cistercian abbey of Mellifont.