Valognes, Hamo de (d. c.1203), a member of the household of John (qv), lord of Ireland, from at latest 1193 and possibly as early as 1185, was sent by John to Ireland as his justiciar in 1195. While in Dublin, he appears to have entered into a dispute with John Cumin (qv), archbishop of Dublin. The details of this dispute are lost, but it was so serious that the archbishop placed his diocese under interdict and went into exile. The dispute was ended when the justiciar granted 20 virgates of his own lands to the archbishop.
In 1197 Valognes travelled to Limerick to recapture the city, from which the English had been driven out by Domnall Mac Carthaig (qv). In the same year, John, as lord of Ireland, issued a charter confirming the fee farm of the city of Limerick and made a series of speculative grants that parcelled out the modern county of Limerick, driving a wedge between the O'Brien kingdom of Thomond and the MacCarthy kingdom of Desmond. Valognes was the recipient of two cantreds in western Limerick around this period, a grant that was later confirmed by the king in September 1199. He was replaced as justiciar by Meiler fitz Henry (qv) in 1198. In 1199 he began the settlement of his lands in Limerick by building a castle at Askeaton before returning to England. In May 1200 he received licence to colonise his Irish lands, provided he respected the royal demesne and other lords’ rights.
Valognes appears to have died before 1203, when Askeaton castle was granted to William de Burgh (qv). His lands were held in royal hands during the minority of his son Hamo, till the latter was granted seisin in February 1215.