A History of Ireland.

by Eleanor Hull

1931

IX.—THE GERALDINES: THE HOUSE OF DESMOND AND THE HOUSE OF KILDARE

He was a successful Viceroy, for he not only attracted to himself and his line most of the English in Ireland and stayed the tendency toward disaffection, but his beneficent measures brought in the Irish lords in great numbers. It was said that the influence of the Duke of York was so great that "ere twelve month come to end the wildest Irishman in Ireland will be sworn English." The list of Irish lords who came in and brought their kerne with them included O'Byrne, O'More, O'Farrell, O'Nolan, O'Dempsey, MacMorrogh, MacGeogheghan, O'Hanlon, and O'Neill. Besides these, Magennis, lord of Iveagh, brought with him 600 horse and foot, MacMahon 800 men "well harnessed," the O'Reilleys 700, "with many other that be the King's liege men." The head of the O'Byrnes, after a sharp reminder of the King's power, was "sworn the King's true subject, his wife and his children to learn English and wear English array, and the King's laws to be suffered throughout his land." The Norman lords followed suit. De Cogans, Roches, Barretts, Desmond the White Knight, and the nobles of Eastern Ulster and Leinster, described as "kings, dukes, earls, and barons," bound themselves by indentures and hostages as sworn liegemen of the King. It was time that something should be done, for a memorial addressed to Richard Plantagenet by the liegemen of Co. Kildare in 1454 complained that "this land of Ireland was never at the point finally to be destroyed since the conquest as it is now," no loyalists even in Leinster or Meath daring to appear in the King's courts, or to ride to market towns for dread to be slain, or having their goods spoiled, through the misrule and violence of "divers gentlemen of the counties," of whom the Lords of Kildare were the worst offenders, "more destruction being committed by them than was done by Irish enemies and English rebels long time before."

The hopes of the Duke of York were cut short at the disastrous battle of Wakefield in 1460. He led a great army of Irish kerne over to England to support his claims to the throne and joined them with the English troops. They met with a decisive defeat; Richard Plantagenet fell, fighting bravely, but in the following year his son, Edward IV, ascended the throne as the representative of the house of York. Thus ended the career of one who as Viceroy of Ireland had, during his ten years' government, "exceedingly tied to him the hearts of the noblemen and gentlemen of that land."[3] One of the most independent of the native princes, MacGeoghegan of the Hy-Fiachrach, hitherto always ready to combine with the English rebels, was treated by him with such honour that he went home boasting that "he had given peace to the King's Lieutenant."

[3] Gilbert, Viceroys, p. 368.
It was in the last year of Richard Plantagenet's life that the Irish Parliament, sitting under his presidency, made an effort to enlarge its independent powers. In the later years of the reign of Edward III the members had claimed the privilege of refusing to send representatives to England on the demand of the sovereign, and had protested "the rights, privileges, and usages which the Lords and Commons from the time of the conquest of the land of Ireland had possessed and enjoyed." [4] Now, in 1460, stimulated by the Duke's presence, and strengthened by the memory of their late services to the Crown, they made a further step in asserting their liberties. The Commons affirmed that Ireland, being corporate in itself, was "bound only by such laws as the Parliament or Great Councils of Ireland itself held, accepted, and proclaimed." It was the first clear enunciation of the principle of Irish Parliamentary independence, stated in unmistakable language. This principle, which was thrown to the winds during the Tudor period, when it was the aim of the sovereigns to make Ireland directly dependent on the will of the Crown, was one for the recovery of which Ireland was to fight for centuries; it was the principle which in after days was to be reaffirmed by Molyneux, Grattan, and Parnell. It was violently resisted thirty-four years later in Poynings' Law (1494), which rendered the Parliaments of Ireland completely dependent on those of England. The immediate cause of the passing of this law lay in the disputes of the leading Anglo-Irish families which had lowered the Irish Parliament into a mere tool in the hands of whichever party was in power, and had utterly destroyed any representative character which it had possessed. Butlers, Kildares, and Desmonds had used it in turn to advance the interests each of his own house. It only remained for a Tudor autocrat, watching his opportunity, to put an end to these unseemly quarrels by robbing it of its former independence of action.

[4] Gilbert, Facsimiles, iii, No. XIX.
Poynings' Law had also another purpose; it was intended to prevent any further efforts of the Irish nobility to influence the course of events in England. During the long dynastic wars Desmond and Kildare had carried on a struggle on behalf of the house of York which had helped to decide the succession in a direction contrary to that which finally prevailed, and the Lancastrian Henry VII was determined that this should never occur again. He designed to render the Anglo-Irish gentry powerless outside their own country and seriously to diminish their influence within it. In the Parliament called by the Lord Deputy Poynings at Drogheda in December 1494 there was passed the Act which bore his name and which for three centuries was to deprive the Parliament of Ireland of even the shadow of independence. Judges and other officials were to hold office during pleasure and not by patent as heretofore; the chief castles were to be placed in English hands; to carry weapons or wage private wars, or to excite the Irish to take up arms, was made illegal and high treason, and the chief measures of the Statute of Kilkenny were re-enacted. The principal clause provided that no Parliament should be summoned in Ireland except under the Great Seal of England, or without due notice to the English Privy Council; and that no Acts of the Irish Parliament should be valid unless previously submitted to the same body. A still more controversial measure followed, which declared that all laws "late made in England" should apply to Ireland, even if they had never been approved by the Irish Parliament or made known to them, and subsequently even this stretch of the prerogative was exceeded by the decision that this should apply to all laws whatsoever passed in England up to that date. This article reads as follows: "Be it ordained and established by authority of this present Parliament...that all statutes late made within the said realm of England concerning and belonging to the common and public weal of the same be henceforth deemed good and effectual in the law, and over that be accepted, used, and executed within this land of Ireland in all points at all times requisite according to the tenour and effect of the same; and over that by authority aforesaid, that they and every of them be authorized, proved, and confirmed in this land of Ireland. And if any statute or statutes have been made within this said land hereafter to the contrary, they and every of them by authority aforesaid be revoked, void, and of none effect in the law." [5]

[5] Irish Statutes, 1 Hen. VII.
Thus by Poynings' Law not only was the Irish Parliament rendered helpless to pass regulations for its own country and made completely subordinate to that of England, but Ireland was also saddled with a whole body of laws in the making of which she had no part and which were designed for England only. A slight modification was made in Mary's reign, and during the rebellion of 1641 Charles I promised its repeal, but this was never carried out. On the contrary, the principle was extended by a statute passed in 1719, enabling the English Parliament to legislate for Ireland without reference to the Irish Parliament, and it required the lengthened struggle at the close of the eighteenth century to bring about the repeal of these laws. Yet, though Poynings carried out the purpose with which he was sent to Ireland, it was not easy by Act of Parliament to deprive the Anglo-Irish nobility of all semblance of independence. The Pale was reduced to the weakest point, and the country was unable to pay its way. In spite of the intention of filling all posts with Englishmen sent over with that object, the gentry of the country had again to be called upon, the new English not being willing to face the prevailing conditions. Kildare was once more installed as Deputy, and the Geraldine supremacy lasted till 1534, when the outbreak of the rebellion of "Silken Thomas" brought it to an end.

It is necessary at this stage to sketch the past history of the two branches of the great house of the Geraldines, the Desmonds and Kildares, whose ancestors had been the first to respond to the appeal of Dermot MacMorrogh for help, and who had carved out for themselves large tracts of Leinster and Munster as their reward. The FitzGeralds, or Geraldines, traced their descent traditionally to the powerful family of the Gherardini of Florence, who up to a late date acknowledged the connexion by keeping up a friendly correspondence with the two Irish houses.[6] We have seen the rapid rise to power of the family after their arrival in Ireland and the vast estates controlled by them. They had become thoroughly Irish, speaking the native language in their home life and encouraging native brehons, bards, and historians in their families. Their war-cries of "Crom-aboo" and "Shanad-aboo" were heard in many a fray and were answered by the "Lamh-laidir-aboo" of the O'Briens over the border.[7]

[6] There are letters extant written by Gerald, Earl of Kildare, in May, 1507 to the Gherardini family at Florence, and a letter to the Earl of Desmond (Earls of Kildare, p. 65).
[7] Croom and Shanad were castles of the Geraldines; the cry meant "Up with Croom" and "Up with Shanad." The O'Brien cry was "Up with the strong hand."
It required an Act of Parliament in 1495 to suppress these dangerously exciting battle-cries. The FitzGeralds, unlike the Ormondes, with whom their houses carried on an hereditary feud from century to century, were always inclined to alliance with the native chiefs. It will be well to speak of the Desmonds and the Kildares in turn, and to trace their history up to the outbreak of the Geraldine rebellions.

The Desmonds were unfortunate in their family succession. On more than one occasion the deaths of the direct heirs by accident, or the disputes between different members of the family, led to such confusion that the succession is reckoned differently by various genealogists. Gerald, or Garrett, the third (or fourth) Earl (d. 1398) received the estates from his elder brother Maurice, who died young, on condition of marrying Eleanor, daughter of James Butler, the second Earl of Ormonde (d. 1382), who, in the reigns of Edward III and Richard II, had received many gifts of lands and who was then, in 1359, Viceroy of Ireland. The object of this marriage was to bring to an end the wars between the two houses, which had been carried on from year to year and were destructive to the country. But no plans, however well laid by English kings, availed to stay this family feud, which was to be further increased in the reign of Henry V by the close friendship between James the "White" Earl of Ormonde and Thomas of Lancaster. This made adherence to the Lancastrian cause traditional in the house of Ormonde, while the Desmonds were strongly Yorkist. Though the Desmonds remained loyalist up to the time of the Reformation (which threw them definitely on the side of the anti-English Catholic confederation, and produced the rebellion of Elizabeth's reign) they were increasingly Irish in their habits and sympathies. Gerald even gave his son James to be fostered by the O'Briens.

Gerald is styled "the Rhymer" or "Poet," and some very charming poems in Anglo-Norman French, founded on French models, delicate and ingenious lyrics like the Court poetry of the Elizabethan period in England, remain to prove the European strain of culture that mingled with the Irish tradition in his mind, and the union of which produced an aristocratic love-poetry of the type of that of Wyatt and Surrey. Some poems written by members of his house are to be found in a manuscript in the British Museum,[8] and have for heading the title Proverbia Comitis Desmonie. His Gaelic poems and those of his family, some of which may be earlier than this date, remain in the Scottish Book of the Dean of Lismore. This Gerald is a romantic figure, "a nobleman of wonderful bounty, mirth, and cheerfulness of conversation, charitable in his deeds, easy of access, a witty and ingenious composer of Irish poetry, and a learned and profound chronicler," say the historians of his country. In 1367 he succeeded Lionel, Duke of Clarence, as Justiciar, acting at other times as his Deputy to uphold the King's policy in Munster. But to his own people he was famous chiefly for his erudition; they looked on him as a mathematician and the possessor of magic arts. Such a man could not die, and tradition says that in 1398, after being thirty years earl, he disappeared under the waters of Loch Gur, where he sleeps, save once in every seven years, when he awakens and passes over the waters of the lake, riding upon its ripples.

[8] Harleian MS. 913, fol. 156, called "the Book of Ross and Waterford" See T. F. O'Rahilly and R. Flower, Dánta Grádha (1926), xiii.
Again, on his departure, the succession was disputed, two of his sons and his brother having died young, leaving no children. Finally his third son, James, O'Brien's foster-son, succeeded in displacing his nephew Thomas, who had more direct claims to the earldom. Of this Thomas it is said that in him "the pernicious disease that infested his posterity first took rooting," for he went twice into rebellion, forfeiting his estates, and "after many turnings and windings up and down the realm" he died in 1446 in banishment in France.[9] James was father of the eighth or "Great" earl, Thomas FitzGerald, by his wife Mary, daughter of Ulick Burke, who succeeded to the family estates in 1462, and in the following year was appointed Deputy to the Duke of Clarence, the Lord-Lieutenant. Being a strong Yorkist, Thomas attached himself warmly to the fortunes of Edward IV, fighting on his side in nine battles against the Lancastrians and rising high in the King's favour and personal friendship. As a hostage for the loyalty of his house he had been educated at Court, and he was thoroughly at home in England. He was a man of great activity and occupied himself in building border-castles to defend the Pale and in garrisoning the passes of Offaly; he was "a lord wise, learned in Latin, in English, and in the old Gaelic writings," combining in his person the best knowledge of both countries. He relaxed the orders against trafficking with the Irish, in spite of prohibitions passed in the Irish Parliament; and he set himself to do justice and show humanity to all. For some years he ruled nobly and discreetly and then retired to his estates in Munster. But "the old malice that had been between the bloods of the Desmonds and Butlers," as Lord Grey said at a later date, broke out afresh in 1463, and the Earl entered and devastated the Butlers' lands. Complaints were transmitted to London by those who were jealous of his power and influence, accusing him of taking "coyne and livery" contrary to the law, of relaxing the orders against "trafficking with the Irish enemy," and of entering into treasonable correspondence with the Irish. But he laid his case in person before the King in 1464, and Edward, with whom "he was in singular favour" and "who took pleasure and delight in his talk," [10] refused to listen to the accusations of his enemies. On the Irish Parliament certifying that "he had always governed by English law and had brought Ireland to a reasonable state of peace, having, moreover, rendered great services at intolerable charges and risks," he was restored to office by the King, and six manors in Meath were granted to him. In his own district he devoted himself to improvements.

[9] Unpublished Geraldine Documents, ed. S. Hayman and J. Graves (1870).
[10] J. Clyn, Annalium Hiberniae Chronicon, ed. R. Butler (1849), at date.
At Youghal, where he lived, he founded a college with a Warden, eight Fellows, and eight choristers, who lived together in a collegiate manner, having a common table and all other necessaries allowed them.[11] In his time representatives went from Cork to the Irish Parliament. This great man was cut off in a sudden and mysterious manner. Sir John Tiptoft (or Tibotot), Lord Worcester, who was his determined enemy, was sent over as Viceroy in 1467, apparently at the wish of Edward's Queen, Elizabeth Woodville, who had long been jealous of Desmond's influence with the King and was watching her chance to bring down the Earl's pride. Desmond had been opposed to the King's marriage with Elizabeth, whom he considered as a woman unsuited to Edward's rank and position, and he is said to have counselled the King to divorce her. Some whisperings of this had reached the Queen's ears, and hardly was Tiptoft well in office than she sent over an order, as though in the King's name and sealed with his privy seal, ordering him to take and execute Desmond.[12] On receiving her injunction he hastily called a Parliament at Drogheda, to which Desmond and Kildare were both summoned; they were arraigned, and Desmond was speedily executed, "to the great astonishment of the whole nobility of Ireland." With him was executed Edward Plunket. This event, which happened on February 14, 1468, when Thomas was only forty-two years of age, sent a thrill of horror through the land. English and Irish alike condemned a crime committed "without cause, without guilt, without right at law, but only through jealousy and envy." The vague charges brought against the victims might equally have been brought against any great lord who lived in amity with his Irish neighbours, and other nobles must have felt their heads in danger. "The King was wondrously offended," and the Queen, the author of the whole mischief, had to fly to sanctuary. Even Richard, the King's brother, afterward King Richard III, himself soon to become an expert in swift and needless executions, described Desmond as "atrociously slain and murdered by colour of law against all reason and sound conscience." Long afterward, when Sir Henry Sidney came over as Deputy, he had Desmond's body removed to a tomb in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin.

[11] S. Hayman, New Handbook of Youghal (1858).
[12] This is the story given in the Book of Howth in Carew, Miscellany, pp. 186-188; and see Annals of the Four Masters, 1468.
The death of Desmond loosened the bonds which had up to this time held the Anglo-Norman lords of the South attached to the Crown. It showed how difficult it was for even the most esteemed among them to keep in favour with the Government of his country if he were known to act justly and mercifully toward his Irish tenants. Such acts of humanity could easily be represented as "aiding the King's enemies" by anyone maliciously inclined toward the offender. The representatives of these great houses were in a difficult position; they felt themselves and were, indeed, looked upon as neither Irish nor English. They were "Irish to the English and English to the Irish." Close as they were to their adopted country in their sympathies, they had not yet forgotten their English origin and allegiance. The immediate result of Desmond's judicial murder was an outbreak by his sons; the first of those devastating rebellions which in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were to reduce the fertile province of Munster to a desert. They wasted the country up to the gates of Dublin. Tiptoft was recalled for maladministration, and not even the Queen's letter, which he produced, could purchase his life; he had to "make satisfaction for the angry ghost of Desmond." By his execution "God was held to have avenged this treachery," and the King made the largest offers of pardon and restitution to the young men who had taken up arms to avenge the death of their father. His letters were so conciliatory that on reading them the Desmonds decided to lay down their arms, receiving in return extended privileges and large additions to their lands in Kerry, with the town and castle of Dungarvan. Four of them in turn succeeded to the earldom, and they were said to be "wyse and politicke men" who advanced the position of their house at the expense of their Irish neighbours and to the envy of their friends.

Meanwhile, the House of Kildare was also playing a leading part in the history of the country. John FitzThomas FitzGerald, sixth Baron of Offaly, created Earl of Kildare by a patent of Edward II dated May 16, 1316, was in the fourth generation from Maurice FitzGerald (d. 1176), the invader of Ireland and founder of the family fortunes. His greatgrandfather Gerald, son of the invader, had erected Maynooth Castle and fixed his seat firmly in Kildare; and Maurice, son of Gerald, held the high post of Justiciar in 1229 and 1232. The family had proved themselves good servants of the Crown, both in the wars with Bruce in Ireland and with the Scots in Scotland, and had steadily advanced in the royal favour. Thomas Fitzjohn FitzGerald, who died in 1328, had held the post of sheriff for County Kildare, and was twice Justiciar, presiding in that capacity at the Dublin Parliament of 1324 at which the nobles pledged themselves to support the Crown. His son Richard died, a boy of twelve, in 1331, and the earldom devolved on the youngest brother Maurice (1318-90), who became the fourth Earl. Much of his life was occupied in supporting the opposition led by the Earl of Desmond to the new policy of d'Ufford and Sir John Morice, which aimed at the superseding of the English born in Ireland, such as the Geraldines themselves were, by English born in and brought over from England. Like Desmond he was pursued with malignancy by the anglicizing Deputy. He was enticed to Dublin and arrested at the Council table; but, as we have said, he was released next year, and he accompanied Edward III to the siege of Calais in 1347, being knighted by him for his services. He was sent back to Ireland as Justiciar in 1356. In spite of being closely watched by English Viceroys jealous of their superior influence, the Kildares maintained their position as the leading magnates of Ireland and were steadily supported by successive sovereigns.

From 1455 to 1459 Thomas FitzGerald, the seventh Earl (d. 1477), acted as Deputy for Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, and welcomed him to Ireland on his flight from the Lancastrians. He it was who built the dyke round the now narrowed English Pale, from which it took its name. For its defence he founded the "Brotherhood of St George," a body of archers and spearmen, and excluded from the garrisons all disloyal Irish. He lived in perilous times; the Lancastrians in vain sought to intrigue with the Irish against him; but he could not escape the bitter animosity of the Deputy Tiptoft, and became involved in the attainder of Desmond at Drogheda. But his attainder was reversed by the King and repealed at the Parliament of 1468, and Thomas was reappointed Deputy and remained in office till 1475.

On his death in 1477 he was succeeded by the eighth Earl, Garrett or Gerald, known as the "Great Earl of Kildare." The latter was appointed Deputy in the following year, but the disputes between his family and the Butlers rose to such a height that Edward IV resolved to set aside both rivals to the position of honour, and sent over Lord Grey of Codnor as Deputy in Kildare's place. Kildare refused to acknowledge his authority, alleging that the letters dismissing him were only sealed with the King's private signet and were not official. He called a Council at Naas, which passed an Act authorizing him to adjourn or prorogue Parliament at his pleasure, and the curious spectacle was witnessed of two rival Deputies refusing to acknowledge each other and presiding over rival Parliaments. Annoyed at these feuds, the King summoned before him both the Earl and Grey; but Grey, tired of the contest, retired from office, and Kildare, in the manner of his forefathers, returned with a new commission. He ruled with vigour and justice "his name alone aweing his enemies more than an army." He is described as tall of stature and of a goodly presence; and, unlike the "secret and drifty" Ormonde, he was "open and plain, hardly able to rule himself when he was moved; in anger not so sharp as short, being easily aroused and sooner appeased." [13] He carried his arms into the country of the O'Mores, with whom his family were constantly at war, and he took part in the Ulster wars on the side of his son-in-law, Conn O'Neill. He married his daughters into the houses of Irish chiefs and Norman representatives alike, Lady Eleanor marrying the MacCarthy Reagh; Lady Alice, Conn O'Neill; Lady Eustacia, the Lord of Clanricarde; and Lady Margaret, in the vain hope of healing the breach between the two families, wedded Sir Piers (or Pierce) Butler, who later became the eighth Earl of Ormonde and first Earl of Ossory. This lady, who was known as Mairgread Gerroid, or sometimes playfully as Magheen, or "Little Margaret," on account of her lofty stature and character, has left long traditions behind her. Like her father, the "Great Countess of Ormonde" was a woman of remarkable ability, "able for wisdom to rule a realm, had not her stomach overruled herself." She set herself to reclaim her husband's country "from the sluttish and unclean Irish custom to the English habits, bedding, housekeeping, and civility"; but her marriage failed of its prime object, for the feuds between her father's and her husband's family soon broke out more furiously than ever.

[13] Edmund Campian's History, in Ware's Ancient Irish Histories (1809) p. 158.
The house of Ormonde was now at the height of its power; it was the only Anglo-Irish family that rivalled the Geraldines and from which, besides their own, successive Deputies were chosen. Sir Piers was twice Deputy, once in 1521 and later in 1529, before the arrival of Sir William Skeffington. It had been the intention of Henry VIII to marry him to Anne Boleyn, with whose family he was already connected, for a daughter of the seventh Earl had married Sir William Boleyn, and thus their son Thomas became grandfather to Queen Elizabeth. The zealous Lancastrian sympathies of the Butlers dated from the days of the fifth Earl, James Butler (1420-61), who was knighted by Henry VI and created an English peer in 1449. He had commanded at the decisive battle of Wakefield in December 1460, and he it was who slew Richard, Duke of York, on that bloody field. But at the battle of Towton he was taken prisoner and beheaded, his estates being forfeited for a time; though, with the exception of the Essex properties, they were afterward restored to his brother and successor, Sir John. Thomas, the seventh Earl, was reputed to be the richest subject of the Crown; on his death he left £40,000 in money, and besides his Irish estates he possessed seventy-two manors in England. He was the only Irish peer whom Henry VII or Henry VIII had called to the House of Lords. His family had a high tradition for good looks and nobility of bearing.

Edward IV used to say of his elder brother, Sir John Butler, the sixth Earl, that "he was the goodliest knight he ever beheld and the finest gentleman in Christendom; and that if good breeding, nurture, and liberal qualities were lost to the world, they might all be found in the Earl of Ormonde." He was a man of European culture, with a thorough understanding of many languages, and had served as ambassador at nearly every European Court. He resigned his earldom to his brother Thomas, and went on pilgrimage to the Holy Land, dying on the way in 1478. Such was, in brief, the history of the family into which Margaret FitzGerald married. Her husband, Sir Piers, was the third son of Sir James Butler, his two elder brothers being illegitimate, and his mother was Sabh Kavanagh, of whom we have already spoken. He was a man of ungovernable temper, spending his life in suppressing Irish rebellions and warring with Desmond and Kildare in turn. The Talbots got him removed in 1524, but the King, Henry VIII, appointed him Lord Treasurer in Ireland. "No man," it was said, "dare complain of Kildare except Ormonde." In 1527 he surrendered the earldom to Sir Thomas Boleyn, the grandson of the seventh Earl, and was created instead Earl of Ossory, but the older title was restored to him. With the help of his energetic wife he brought over weavers and artificers from Flanders and established industries for the production of tapestries, carpets, diapers, etc.[14] His eldest son was created Viscount Thurles in 1535 and later became ninth Earl of Ormonde. But he was the victim of unjust suspicions of hostility to the Government and was destined to fall in a mysterious way by poison at Ely House, Holborn, in 1546. His son Thomas, who succeeded to the earldom, was the famous "Black Earl," who played a leading part in Elizabeth's reign.

[14] The effigies of Sir Piers Butler and his wife, Margaret, are still to be seen in the Cathedral of St Canice at Kilkenny.
Through the whole of the later life of the eighth Earl of Kildare and the earldom of the ninth Earl the old jealousies between the great families disturbed the country, each house resenting any advance in power bestowed on the other. But during the life of the Great Earl of Kildare, all the efforts of the Ormondes did not succeed in overthrowing his authority. His readiness to confess his faults, backed by his immense influence in his own country, always extricated him from difficulties. He emerged not only unscathed, but with added marks of royal favour. He was Deputy, with breaks, under Edward IV, Richard III, Henry VII (who playfully nicknamed him his "rebel"), and Henry VIII, though the frequent changes in the succession to the English throne made the task of remaining loyal a difficult one. Through the unceasing machinations of his old foe, the Bishop of Meath, he was captured in Dublin and committed to the Tower, where he remained two years; his wife, who was devoted to her husband, died of grief. Brought at length before the Council, at which the Bishop of Meath was his chief accuser, Kildare's ready wit had the effect of embarrassing his enemies and amusing the King. Accused of having set fire to the cathedral of Cashel, he exclaimed, "By my troth, I would never have done it but that I thought the Bishop was in it." He added that the Bishop, being a learned man, might easily outdo him in argument, on which the King humorously replied that Kildare was at liberty to choose a counsellor, but that "it behoved him to get counsel that was very good, for he doubted that his cause was very bad." "I will choose the best in England," quoth the Earl, "the King himself; and by St Bride I will choose no other." "A wiser man might have chosen worse," replied the King. The Bishop, feeling that he was getting the worst of the argument, exclaimed angrily, "All Ireland cannot rule this man." "Then shall he rule all Ireland," replied the King. He was restored to all his estates and honours and sent back as Deputy, but his eldest son, Gerald Oge, was held in pledge for his father's fidelity.[15] The chief event in Kildare's later life was the battle of Knocdoe, "the Hill of the Battle-axes" (1504), about five miles from Galway, an Anglo-Norman contest in which nevertheless "all the Irish in Ireland" are said to have been involved. It was a battle unequalled for its losses, the O'Kellys, his allies, especially suffering severely. The Irish and the Burkes were so discouraged that they surrendered Galway without resistance, and Henry bestowed the Garter on Kildare as a reward for his victory. On returning to the Pale, he distributed thirty tuns of wine among his soldiers. The old Earl died in 1513 from the effects of a shot from one of the O'Mores of Leix, and he was buried in state in the choir of Christ Church Cathedral, in a tomb which now no longer exists.

[15] Book of Howth, in Carew, Miscellany, pp. 179-180; Campian's History, in Ware's Ancient Irish Histories (1809), pp. 164-171.
His son Gerald, or Garrett Oge FitzGerald, succeeded him as ninth Earl, one of the handsomest men of his day and a fighter like his father. The Annals of the Four Masters speak of him as the most illustrious of the English and Irish of Ireland in his time, his fame and exalted character being heard of in distant countries by foreign nations, as well as being spread through Ireland. Like most of the young Anglo-Irish nobles of his period he had been educated in England, while he was detained as hostage for his father's fidelity. He was a man of learning and interested in books, for he encouraged the writing of chronicles and kept one Philip Flattisbury for this purpose at a town near Naas. He collected a considerable library of Latin, French, English, and Irish books, of which a list still remains.[16] A volume called The Earl of Kildare's Rental also exists showing the methodical care with which his estates were managed. He followed his father's example in attacking and subduing the Irish chiefs on the borders of the Pale; he relieved his own country of cess and improved his lands. He was appointed Lord Deputy on the death of his father, and in 1519 he accompanied King Henry VIII, then in the prime of his youth and splendour, to the Field of the Cloth of Gold, where Kildare was distinguished by his brilliant appearance and bearing. But his successes awakened the jealousy of his enemies, and secret reports of maladministration were sent over to London and were eagerly seized upon by Wolsey, who desired his downfall. He was summoned to England, where he married as his second wife a near kinswoman of the King, the Lady Elizabeth Grey, daughter of the Marquis of Dorset. The influence which he gained by this marriage placed him close to the Court, and in October 1520 the King wrote to the Earl of Surrey, who had replaced Kildare in Ireland, that they had "noon evident testimonies" to convict the Earl, who was accordingly acquitted and returned to Dublin in 1523.

[16] See Appendix V
Surrey was a Viceroy who directed the whole of his powers to the establishment of quiet, and generally with success; the Irish kept their indentures under his rule, and the poor and simple people thought he was the King's son," all English and Irishmen alike "on their knees praying devoutly that his generation should continue." He is said to have been so just a judge that no man departed from him without the law and right he ought to have, and he used to say that he would eat grasses and drink water rather than feast at a banquet with a heavy heart and the curse of the poor.[17] He paid full and ready money for all he took, so that the markets followed wherever he went. But with regard to Kildare his pacific efforts failed. The whole island had, in Surrey's words, been agitated at the prospect of the return of Garrett Oge; but his foes would not leave him in peace. His brother-in-law Piers, now Earl of Ormonde, had joined with the Earl's other enemies and abetted Wolsey's designs to get rid of Kildare's dominant influence in Irish affairs, his wife throwing herself vigorously into the quarrel of her husband against her brother. Surrey's attempts to patch up the quarrel had been unavailing, and Kildare's wife wrote to the King that she lived in continual fear, for she had known the Earl, who was as good and kind to her "as eny man may be to hys wif," twice in one morning warned ere he rose out of bed. Each Earl transmitted to London accusations against the other, the chief point against Kildare being that he had allowed his kinsman Desmond to escape when ordered to arrest him on the charge of high treason. The State Papers report that "he went his waye as wise as he came," and it is quite likely that he shut his eyes to Desmond's escape. In 1526 he was ordered to go to England and was committed to the Tower.

[17] Book of Howth, in Carew, Miscellany, p. 191.
When brought before the Council, Wolsey began to pile accusations against him in a violent manner, but Kildare, checking him, demanded to have leave to answer each point in turn. He made a dignified and spirited speech, not without sharp shafts at the insolence and greed of the Cardinal. "I would you and I had changed kingdoms, my Lord, but for one month; I would trust to gather up more crumbs in that space than twice the revenues of my poor earldom." The Cardinal, "perceiving that Kildare was no babe, rose in a fume from the Council table," and recommitted Kildare to the Tower, going so far as to send an order on his own authority for his execution; but the King, "controlling the sauciness of the priest," sent his ring in token of countermanding the order. Even the Cardinal, in his saner moments, was of opinion that it would be inexpedient to remove him from his office as Deputy, there being no one in the kingdom able to replace him; but it was not till August 1530 that he returned to Ireland in the company of Sir William Skeffington, whom he soon succeeded as Deputy. Unfortunately he used his power with great lack of discretion. He despised Skeffington, and never failed to take an opportunity to humiliate him; he displaced Archbishop Alen, Wolsey's friend, who was his opponent; he ravaged the territories of the Butlers and allowed O'Neill to invade Uriel (Louth). Reports of these high-handed proceedings were not long in reaching London. His enemies complained that the Council "were partly corrupted with affection towards him and partly in dread of him," so that no man will do anything that shall be "displeasant" to him. In 1533 he was again summoned by King's letters to England. "He received the summons with reverence and made no answer, but prepared himself for his journey to London." [18] He called a Council at Drogheda, where he appointed as Deputy during his absence his son Thomas, a lad of twenty-one, afterward to be known as "Silken Thomas." He solemnly charged him to act only by the advice of the Council, and to behave himself so wisely in his green years that he might enjoy the pleasure of summer and glean the fruits of harvest. Hardly had the brave old Earl been again committed to the Tower when news reached him that his son had broken out into rebellion and that the Archbishop of Dublin had fallen a victim. A copy of the Papal excommunication pronounced against his son for this murder, which was shown to him by the Lieutenant of the Tower, seems to have been the final stroke of misfortune. He was suffering from a wound received in his last fray with O'Carroll, and from privations endured in prison, and on December 12, 1534, the old man died and was buried in St Peter's Church within the Tower walls.

[18] "Examination of Robert Reyley, on the Rebellion of Silken Thomas, August 5 1536," Carew, Calendar, 1, No. 84, p. 98.
His son Thomas, who now comes to the front, was his only son by his first wife Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Zouche. By his second marriage to Lady Elizabeth Grey, whose brother, Lord Leonard Grey, was shortly afterward to be sent over as Marshal, he had two children who became famous, one for his adventures, the other for her beauty. These were Garrett (or Gerald), eleventh Earl of Kildare, who was saved by the devotion of his people from the ruin which overtook his family after the rebellion of his half-brother, "Silken Thomas," and Lady Elizabeth, the "Fair Geraldine" whose charms were sung by the poet Henry, Earl of Surrey, and of whom Sir Walter Scott has left an unfading picture in his Lay of the Last Minstrel. The beautiful girl, who was only seven years old when her father died, lived after his death with her mother at her uncle's house, Beaumanoir, in Leicestershire. When Surrey first saw her at Hunsdon she was twelve years old, and was being educated with the future Queen Mary. She left Hunsdon to become one of the ladies-in-waiting to Queen Katherine Howard, and in 1543, at the age of fifteen, she was married to Sir Anthony Browne, a man much older than herself. Before her second marriage to Lord Admiral Clinton, Surrey had been sent to the block. It is unlikely that there was anything more than admiration between the poet and the girl. Her portrait remains at Carton, the seat of the Dukes of Leinster, with the one we here reproduce of her father, Garrett Oge. On both sides of her family the Fair Geraldine saw one after another of her relations hurried to the scaffold. At Beaumanoir the gentle and learned Lady Jane Grey, who was closely related by marriage to her family, was growing up, only to be pushed by her ambitious kinsfolk into the disastrous project which was to involve herself and her whole family in ruin. On her father's side the Lady Elizabeth was to witness the equal ruin of the great house of Kildare to which she belonged, by the execution of her uncles and her half-brother in one terrible act of vengeance provoked by that half-brother's ill-advised and hasty rebellion. Her only real brother, Gerald, was for years a fugitive at home and abroad. Lady Elizabeth lived much at Court, where she acted as maid-of-honour to Princess Mary. She survived to see the restoration of the family estates and honours when Mary became Queen of England.

There seems no doubt that the young Vice-Deputy, Thomas, Lord Offaly (1513-37), into whose hands his father had committed "a naked sword" at the early age of twenty one, was hurried into rebellion by reports sedulously spread abroad or conveyed to him in secret letters that his father had been, or was about to be, "cut shorter" in the Tower. The house of Kildare had many enemies only too ready to take advantage of the inexperience and rash spirit of the youthful Deputy. A slip of paper, which reached his hands by strange means, announced to him the Earl's supposed death. Unheeding the counsels of the Chancellor and of some of his nearest relations, he flung down the Sword of State in the Council chamber, exclaiming, "I am none of Henry his Deputy, I am his foe." This was on June 11, 1534, five months after his father's departure for England. Thomas rode through the city in state, attended by 120 horsemen, whose silken hangings attached to their helmets brought him the sobriquet of "Silken Thomas," besides 340 galloglas and 500 kerne.

At St Mary's Abbey he publicly renounced his allegiance and formally declared war on the Government, placing himself at Oxmantown at the head of the army. The Mayor of Dublin was ordered by the Council to arrest him, but the plague in the city had been so fatal that he had not men to send. Many who disapproved of the rising took refuge in Dublin Castle or escaped to England. Archbishop Alen, who had been a chief agent in the removal of his father, and who was trying to escape from Clontarf, was driven back, and in the attempt to seize him he was either designedly or accidentally killed. The insurrection, though a serious one and prolonged for three years, was destined to failure from the first. The high traditions of his family, the sympathy felt for his anxieties, and his personal beauty attracted to Thomas the affections of the populace, but the great lords stood aloof. The Butlers refused to join him and wasted Kildare, though Thomas offered, if successful, to halve the kingdom with the son of the Earl of Ossory. His assault on Dublin Castle was repulsed, and he narrowly escaped capture in the Abbey of Grey Friars in Francis Street. The promised help from Scotland and Spain showed no sign of coming, and an excommunication from the Pope for the murder of Archbishop Alen by his followers weakened his cause in the eyes of his countrymen. There were tidings of the return of Sir William Skeffington (called "The Gunner," from having been Master of the Ordnance under Henry VIII) with an English army. Though this was held up by storms under Lambey Island, Sir William Brereton succeeded in landing with a portion of the troops, while Skeffington, whose age and weakness were not suited to prompt action, failed in an attempt to go round by Waterford. Offaly had then an army of 7000 men, and after intercepting Brereton he fell back on Maynooth, on which Skeffington did not march until March in the following year, 1535.

Thomas is described as "a man of great natural beauty, of stature tall and personable, in countenance amiable, a fair face and somewhat ruddy." He possessed the rich utterance of his countrymen, and is said to have been "of nature flexible and kind, very soon carried where he fancied; in matters of importance an headlong hotspur, yet nathless taken for a young man not devoid of wit, were it not, as it fell out in the end, that a fool had the keeping thereof." He was a youth who in quiet times would have been beloved, but scarce fitted to lead a forlorn hope. The chief event of the year was the fall of Maynooth Castle, which Lord Offaly, who was now tenth Earl of Kildare, had strongly fortified. It might have proved impregnable even to Skeffington's heavy artillery, had it not been betrayed by its governor, Christopher Parese, the foster-brother of the Earl, whom he had left in command while he went into Offaly to raise additional forces. This unusual act of treachery on the part of a foster-brother—considered the most sacred of Irish relationships—was fitly rewarded by Parese's execution by the Government, his "voluntary service" being even to the captors "so thankless and unsavoury that it stinketh." But his head did not fall alone; twenty-five of the defenders were beheaded and one was hanged "for the dread and example of others," an act cynically spoken of in the State Papers as "The Pardon of Maynooth." The great spoil taken shows that Maynooth was one of the richest earls' houses under the crown of England. Beds, hangings of silk, plate, garments, and furniture were in abundance. The stout towers still remaining prove the great original strength of the castle.

After the fall of Maynooth hope was at an end, and the army of kerne "melted away from the Earl like a snowdrift." He made an attempt to sail into Spain, but O'Brien dissuaded him, and he could do no more than keep up a desultory warfare with the help of O'Brien and O'Conor Faly, who held to him when O'More and MacMorrogh submitted and the head of the Keatings called off his clansmen. The rebellion would probably have been suppressed more quickly but for the slow feebleness of Skeffington, who died in 1535. But the arrival of Lord Leonard Grey as Marshal of the army hastened events. He landed in July 1535, and found Earl Thomas, who was his step-nephew, entrenched in a strong house of earth, so ditched and watered that it seemed well nigh impregnable, hidden in a wood. This he burned and destroyed, and very soon afterward Lord Thomas sent in his submission and surrendered to Grey and Lord Butler. It is probable that he hoped for favourable terms from his kinsman, for the Council reported that he would yield himself to none other but only to him. "To allure him to yield" Grey seems to have held out hopes of pardon which were by no means approved in England. Probably Lord Grey found his service against his step-nephew distasteful; it is certain that he took no pains to hunt down his true nephew, Gerald, Lord Thomas' half-brother, for one of the accusations later brought against him, and for which he suffered death, was that he had allowed the boy to escape. But his action toward Lord Thomas can find no justification. When, after the youth was sent to London and imprisoned in the Tower, Grey's promise to him of personal safety was brought forward, Grey's mouth was stopped by the bribe of a "great rent" and other even less seemly gifts. His treacherous arrest at a banquet of Kildare's five uncles, his own kinsmen, two of whom had been opposed from the first to the rising and were in no way implicated, is one of the worst instances of that detestable Machiavellian policy which ruled in the Courts of Europe generally and in that of England during the seventeenth century. This made friendship, honour, and honesty alike subservient to political ends. On February 3, 1537, Kildare's five uncles suffered the traitor's death at Tyburn, thus at one blow wiping out of existence all the male representatives of one of the great families of the country, save for the child Gerald, who was later to restore the title and position of his house. The seizure of the Geraldines struck terror into the Pale, and a letter written to Cromwell, Henry's adviser, by an alderman in Dublin informed him that the gentlemen of Co. Kildare were "the most sorryest affright men in the world." Lord Thomas survived his uncles for five months. On the walls of the State prison in the Tower may still be read the words "THOMAS FITZ G." It would seem that the inscription was cut short by his summons to death.

His half-brother, a child of ten years of age at the time of the arrest of Lord Thomas, was lying ill of smallpox in Donore. His nurse wrapped him up, and he was conveyed by the devotion of a priest named Thomas Leverous, who remained faithful to him throughout his wanderings, to the care of his half-sister, Lady Mary, who had married Brian O'Conor Faly, chief of Offaly. The most strenuous efforts were made to save this boy, who was adored as the remaining hope of his family and adherents. He was handed on secretly from one place to another, and his aunt, Lady Eleanor, widow of the MacCarthy Reagh, even consented to a second marriage with Manus O'Donnell of Tyrconnel, a man whom she seems to have detested, in order, as she thought, to provide her nephew with a safe asylum. But some years later, in 1540, suspecting that her husband intended to surrender Gerald to the English Government, she sent him over with his tutor, Leverous, disguised in a saffron-coloured shirt "like one of the natives," to St Malo. He was everywhere received with the greatest respect and was protected in turn by the King of France, the Emperor Charles V, and his kinsman, Cardinal Pole. He passed some years in Italy and entered the service of Cosimo de Medici in Florence. His travels in foreign Courts and the care bestowed upon his education made him an accomplished gentleman. It is probable that his oft-expressed desire to become reconciled to the English King was sincere, but he remained abroad until after the death of Henry VIII. He was received into favour by Edward VI, and by him and Queen Mary he was restored to his honours and estates. His faithful tutor, Leverous, was raised to the episcopal bench as Bishop of Kildare and made Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin.

END OF CHAPTER IX