Hattecliffe’s accounts in Letters of Richard III. and Henry VII., vol. ii. pp. 297-318.
65. Ware; Hattecliffe’s Accounts; Earls of Kildare.
66. Gairdner’s Richard III.; Smith’s Waterford, where is given the correspondence between Henry and the city; Carew, vol. v. p. 472, where the events of 1487, 1495, and 1497 are mixed up; Sir Piers Butler to the Earl of Ormonde, in Graves’s St. Canice, p. 193.
67. Four Masters, with O’Donovan’s notes, under 1485. The ‘Annals’ of Andreas and the ‘Douze triomphes de Henri VII.,’ are in Memorials of Henry VII., ed. Gairdner.
68. Sir Piers Butler to the Earl of Ormonde, in Graves’s St. Canice, p. 193. Stanihurst says Sir Piers waylaid his enemy.
69. All the authorities bearing on this event are collected in Graves’s St. Canice, pp. 193-198.
70. The Acts of this Parliament (supposed lost) are printed by Mr. Gilbert in his Facsimiles of Irish National MSS., vol. iii., from the English Patent Rolls. Ware; Four Masters.
71. Four Masters and O’Donovan’s notes, under 1487, 1488, and 1498.
72. Ware; Four Masters.
73. Sidney to Leicester, March 1, 1566, in the Irish State Papers. The account of the battle of Knocktoe is made up from Ware, Stanihurst, the Four Masters, and the Book of Howth. The Four Masters seem to have thought that the forces of the Pale were not engaged, and O’Donovan rather countenances them, but the Annals of Lough Cé say Kildare mustered ‘all the foreigners and Irish of Leinster and of Northern Ireland.’ (Ad ann. 1504.) The details in the Book of Howth may not be all correct, though there is nothing antecedently improbable in Lord Gormanston’s truculent speech.
74. Irish Statutes, 24 Hen. VII.; Letters and Papers of Henry VIII., Oct. 7, 1515.
75. The statutes referred to are printed in Hardiman’s Statute of Kilkenny. See Gilbert’s Viceroys, p. 459.
CHAPTER IX.
FROM THE ACCESSION OF HENRY VIII. TO THE YEAR 1534.
Accession of Henry VIII., 1509. Kildare remains in power.
Henry VIII. was proclaimed without opposition, and amid great rejoicings in all the principal towns, but his accession made no immediate difference to Ireland. Kildare prepared to go to the new King, but the Council, who felt their helplessness without him, chose him Lord Justice, and constrained him to stay. His patent as Lord Deputy was not long withheld, and other official men were for the time continued in authority. The Earl was summoned to Court, but excused himself on the grounds that he could not be spared, and, as the Council sustained him, the King made no objection. Attended by the chief men of the Pale he invaded Munster, and, being joined by O’Donnell, penetrated into Desmond and took Castlemaine, as well as the so-called palace of the MacCarthies near Killarney. He met with scarcely any resistance, and seems to have had no higher object than plunder. Near Limerick, Kildare was joined by Desmond’s eldest son with the main force of the southern Geraldines and the MacCarthies of Carbery and Muskerry. The Lord Deputy passed into Clare by a wooden bridge which the O’Briens had erected near Castleconnell, and which he broke down behind him. Here he was met by Tirlough O’Brien, the chief’s son, accompanied by the Macnamaras and the Clanricarde Burkes. The hostile armies bivouacked at such close quarters that they could hear each other talking at night. At daybreak Kildare retired along the right bank of the Shannon, and reached Limerick in safety with the bulk of his plunder. The Munster Geraldines, with their Irish auxiliaries, marched in the van as not being over trustworthy. In the rear, the post of honour in a retreat, were the O’Donnells and the men of the Pale. Such was the settlement of differences between Geraldines and De Burgos, which the chief governor had alleged as the main obstacle to his attendance upon his sovereign. It was indeed his interest to be always at war, for he had obtained a grant in tail of all such possessions as he could recover from any rebel in Ireland.76 This method of paying a viceroy with letters of marque cost the Crown nothing, but the greatest ingenuity could hardly have devised a plan more fatal to an unfortunate dependency.
Activity of Kildare, 1512, 1513.
During the next year Kildare kept pretty quiet, but was soon again in the field. Crossing the Shannon at Athlone he plundered and burned all before him to Roscommon, where he placed a garrison, and then prolonged his destroying course to Boyle. Here he met O’Donnell, who came to him over the Curlew Mountains. This chief had lately made a pilgrimage to Rome, and spent four months in London going and as many more on his return. He was well received by Henry VIII., but we have unfortunately no details. In this same year Kildare invaded Ulster, took the castle of Belfast, and spoiled the land far and wide. In the following summer he marched against Ely O’Carroll, but while watering his horse in a stream near his own castle of Kilkea he was shot by one of the O’Mores, and died soon afterwards.77 His son Gerald was at once chosen Lord Justice by the Council, and the King continued him in authority78 on the same terms, and with a similar grant of all lands he could recover from the rebels.
The Earldom of Ormonde in abeyance.
The rival house of Ormonde was at this time depressed by the loss of its head without male issue. Early in 1515 died Thomas, the seventh Earl, the only Irish peer whom Henry VII. or Henry VIII. called to the English House of Lords, who was reputed the richest subject of the Crown, and is said to have left the enormous sum of 40,000l. in money, besides jewels. He had two daughters, who inherited his personal property and seventy-two manors in England. Ann, the eldest, was married to Sir James St. Leger, Margaret, the younger, to Sir William Boleyn, by whom she had Sir Thomas, who became grandfather to Queen Elizabeth. Sir Piers Butler, a descendant of the third Earl, was heir male to the title and to the settled Irish estates, which at once became matters of dispute between him and the ladies St. Leger and Boleyn. With the full approval of the Irish Butlers, Sir Piers at once assumed the title of Earl. He had married Lady Margaret Fitzgerald, sister of the new Lord Deputy Kildare, a woman of lofty character and stature, to whom Irish tradition, with an endearing irony, has given the name of Magheen or Little Margaret. In compliance with letters from the King, Sir Piers was ordered to appear before his brother-in-law and the Irish Council; but he sent his wife instead, to urge that he was busy fighting. The lady, who must have had a delicate task between her husband and her brother, procured an adjournment, and it was stipulated that no rents should be paid in the meantime. The late Earl’s daughters appeared by counsel in due course, and it is evident that Henry leaned strongly to their side. They offered evidence of title, but Sir Piers staid away and left
