1497.
Sir James Ormonde, whose mother was an O’Brien, used the help of his Irish connections to oppress Sir Piers Butler, whom he imprisoned, but afterwards released at Desmond’s request, ‘upon trust that he should have married the Earl’s daughter.’ One of Kildare’s first acts after his restoration was to summon Sir James to Dublin, and to proclaim him outlaw on his refusal. But this scarcely lessened his power in the Butler country, and did not even prevent him from assuming the title of Earl of Ormonde. Driven to great straits, Sir Piers asserted that his rival had imprisoned him ‘contrary to his oath and promise made upon the holy cross and other great relics ... and that the same Sir James, not pondering his said oath and promise, showed openly that wheresoever he would find me he would kill me.’ After this Sir James, for the second time, refused to appear before the King. The two Butlers met accidentally in the open field between Dunmore and Kilkenny, and after a short struggle Sir James was slain.68
Consequent peace between Butlers and Geraldines.
According to some accounts this encounter or murder, whichever it may be thought, was caused by Lady Margaret Butler’s complaint that she could get no wine, though in delicate health. ‘Truly, Margaret,’ he answered, ‘thou shalt have store of wine within this four and twenty hours, or else thou shalt feed alone on milk for me.’ One writer says that there were desperate odds against Sir Piers; and if this be true, and considering the then state of Ireland, the guilt of murder can hardly attach to him. The death of Sir James was decidedly beneficial to Ireland, for it made peace between the Houses of Kildare and Ormonde.69
Parliament of 1498.
In 1498 Kildare received a commission to hold a Parliament which was not to last for more than six months. The first Act of this Parliament was to confirm the reversal of the Lord Deputy’s attainder, who by a singular anomaly thus exercised viceregal authority, notwithstanding the corruption of his own blood; the last to attaint Lord Barrymore and John Waters for their dealings with Perkin Warbeck. Waters was caught, found guilty by a Westminster jury, and hanged at Tyburn, alongside of the pretender. Lord Barrymore escaped arrest, but was murdered by his brother, the Archdeacon of Cork. Kildare visited and garrisoned Cork, forcing the chief inhabitants to take the oath of allegiance to Henry, and to give bonds for future good behaviour. Of the other Acts passed, the most important was one for the discouragement of Irish habits and weapons. Henceforth dwellers within the Pale were enjoined to wear only English dress, and to wield only ‘English artillery,’ such as swords, bucklers, pavesses, bows, arrows, bills, crossbows, guns, or such hand weapons—darts and spears being prohibited; and they were to ride in saddles in the English fashion.70
Kildare’s wars in Ulster. Cannon are used.
It was Kildare’s fortune not only to give trouble himself, but to be the progenitor of those who were to give trouble in future. The rebellion of his grandson Thomas Fitzgerald was to cause the eclipse of his house. The descendants of his daughter Alice were to be the chief disturbers of the Elizabethan monarchy in Ireland. She had married Con More O’Neill, who was naturalised by Act of Parliament, and this gave her father a fair excuse for interfering in the affairs of Ulster. Con More had been treacherously killed by his brother Henry in 1493, and the murderer fought for supremacy with his brother Donnell. Henry was at first successful, and Donnell, whom Lady Alice appears to have favoured, could only keep up a desultory opposition. In 1497 a peace or truce was made, but in the following year Tirlough and Con, Lady Alice’s two young sons, killed Henry in revenge for their father’s death, and invited Kildare to come himself into Ulster. Besides his grandsons, the Lord Deputy had the help of Donnell O’Neill, of Maguire, of O’Donnell, and of most of the neighbouring clans against Henry O’Neill’s sons and partisans. Cannon were brought against Dungannon, which soon surrendered. Omagh was afterwards taken, and Donnell was established as chief of Tyrone. Firearms were perhaps first brought to Ireland in 1483, when six muskets, considered a great rarity, were sent from Germany as a present to Kildare, and were borne by his guards more for show than for use. In 1487 an O’Donnell was killed by a cannon or musket shot in a local broil, and in the following year Kildare brought ordnance against Balrath Castle. In 1495, as we have seen, heavy guns were successfully used for the defence of Waterford, and the mention of firearms in the Act of 1498 shows that their importance was quickly recognised. Cannon came in time to be the peculiar weapons of the King, their great expense putting them out of the reach of private combatants, and no doubt it was gunpowder that caused the downfall both of the feudal and of the tribal systems.71
Kildare’s wars in Connaught and Ulster.
In 1499 the Lord Deputy, who acted pretty much as if there were no King in England, made an excursion into Connaught, and garrisoned certain castles. About the same time Piers Butler was defeated in battle by the O’Briens, but the causes of neither quarrel have been handed down to us. It was the policy of the Anglo-Norman nobles in Ireland to make themselves allies among the Irish, and in pursuance of this idea the Earl gave up his son Henry to be fostered by his late ally, Hugh Roe O’Donnell, who came to visit him in the Pale. Kildare afterwards held a Parliament at Castle Dermot; but its acts had no political significance, unless the punishment of certain nobles for not wearing Parliament-robes, and for not using saddles, be considered an exception.
Donnell O’Neill and his nephews did not long remain at peace, and O’Donnell, siding with the latter, expelled Donnell from Dungannon. Kildare again invaded Tyrone, in conjunction with O’Donnell, and took Kinard Castle, which he handed over to his grandson Tirlough; but six weeks later it was retaken by Donnell O’Neill. For more than two years after this no event of any importance is recorded; there were ceaseless wars among the Irish, but the Lord Deputy does not seem to have interfered with them.
Kildare in England, 1503.
In 1503 Kildare visited England by the King’s orders, and remained there three months. Having licence from Henry to appoint a substitute, he selected his old antagonist the Archbishop of Dublin to act as Lord Justice in his absence. The Earl remained three months in England, and was allowed to bring back his son Gerald, who had been a hostage for eight years. Gerald, who was accompanied by his bride, Elizabeth Zouche, received his appointment as Lord Treasurer of Ireland a few months later.72
Battle of Knocktoe, 1504.
In 1504 a quarrel arose between Kildare and Ulick MacWilliam Burke, Lord of Clanricarde, who had married his daughter, Lady Eustacia. The only cause assigned by any of the authorities is, that MacWilliam ill-treated his wife. He had, however, seized the town of Galway, and that might be provocation enough for a Lord Deputy. Two great armies were collected—MacWilliam having the O’Briens and Macnamaras, the Connaught O’Connors, and the MacBriens, O’Kennedys, and O’Carrolls on his side. With the Deputy were a portion at least of the O’Neills, O’Donnell, MacDermot, Magennis, O’Connor Faly, O’Ferrall, MacMahon, O’Reilly, O’Hanlon, and some of the Mayo Burkes, the Mayor of Dublin, the Earl of Desmond, and the Lords Gormanston, Slane, Delvin, Killeen, Dunsany, Trimleston, and Howth. Notwithstanding this formidable array of names, Kildare’s army was far inferior to MacWilliam’s in point of numbers. Both bishops and lawyers appeared at the council of war which preceded the battle: Art O’Neill objecting to the former and O’Connor Faly to the other. The one declared that the bishops’ duty was ‘to pray, to preach, and to make fair weather, and not to be privy to manslaughter;’ and the other expressed great contempt for pen and ink and for ‘the weak and doubtful stomachs of learned men.’ ‘I never,’ he said, ‘saw those that were learned ever give good counsel in matters of war, for they were always doubting, and staying, and persuading, more in frivolous and uncertain words than Ector or Launcelot’s doings.’
