Norfolk being preferred, and after him Skeffington, the abolition of Irish customs, and the education of young noblemen and chiefs’ sons at the English Court. Local presidencies were also recommended, but the first thing was to get rid of Kildare. The Geraldines indeed did not conceal that their interests were not those of the Crown. ‘Thou fool,’ said Sir Gerald MacShane to the Earl’s brother Thomas, who had some legal scruples, ‘thou shalt be the more esteemed in Ireland to take part against the King; for what hadst thou been if thy father had not done so? What was he set by until he crowned a King here; took Garth, the King’s captain, prisoner; hanged his son; resisted Poynings and all Deputies; killed them of Dublin upon Oxmantown Green; would suffer no man to rule here for the King, but himself? Then the King regarded him, made him Deputy and married thy mother to him; or else thou shouldst never have had foot of land, where now thou mayst dispend 400 marks by year, or above.’123
Kildare is forced to go to England, 1534.
As the result of Alen’s efforts, Kildare was summoned to Court. The Earl doubtless felt that his chances would be small if once the Tower gates closed upon him, and he sent his wife over to get the order revoked, on the old ground that he could not be spared. Lady Kildare’s diplomacy failed, and her husband was summoned a second time; but was allowed to appoint a Vice-Deputy. This may, or may not, have been a bait to induce him to go quietly, for nothing less than an army could have taken him by force. Skeffington had been working hard against his enemy, and was in constant communication with Cromwell, watching the port of Chester, so as to be in London as soon or sooner than the Earl. He reported that Lady Kildare’s servants delayed the King’s letters purposely, and that he was most anxious for the moment when he should at last be able to prove his charges against the Lord-Deputy.124
His eldest son remains as Deputy.
Kildare had now no choice but between obedience and open rebellion. Before embarking at Drogheda he delivered the sword to his eldest son in the presence of several members of Council. Thomas Lord Offaly, better known as Lord Thomas and Silken Thomas, was about twenty years old, and his father advised him to be guided in all things by his uncle, Sir James Fitzgerald; his cousin, Sir Thomas Eustace; his great-aunt, Lady Janet Eustace, and her husband and son, Walter and James Delahide. It is impossible to pronounce on the genuineness of the speech which the chronicler puts into Kildare’s mouth, but the advice contained in it would have been well suited to the occasion. He told his son that his youth should be guided by age; his ignorance by experience. He was, he said, putting a naked sword into a young man’s hand, and urged him to defer to the Council, ‘for albeit in authority you rule them, yet in counsel they must rule you.’125
FOOTNOTES:
76. See his patent of Nov. 8, 1510. Council of Ireland to the King, June 8, 1509, in Brewer; Four Masters; Annals of Lough Cé.
77. Earls of Kildare, p. 69; Ware; Four Masters. Kildare died Sept. 3, 1513.
78. See the grant in Brewer, Dec. 2, 1513, and again, March 24, 1516.
79. Kildare to the King, Dec. 1, and Archbishop Rokeby to Wolsey, Dec. 12, 1515, both in Brewer.
80. Four Masters, 1516.
81. Ibid.
82. Kite to Wolsey, May 1 and June 7, 1514, R.O.; Lady Kildare’s Articles of Complaint, 1515, R.O.; Ware’s Annals.
83. The tract by Finglas is in Carew, under 1515.
84. For further details of Irish exactions see Ware’s Antiquities, and Presentments of Irish Grand Juries in the Sixteenth Century, ed. Hore and Graves, p. 266, sqq. Articles by Sir William Darcy, June 24, 1515, in Carew.
85. The paper printed by Leland, ii. 132, contains only Donogh O’Carroll’s recollections. Surrey to Wolsey, September 6, 1520.
86. The Lord-Lieutenant and Council to the King, August 25; Surrey to Wolsey, August 27; Surrey to the King, July 29, 1521.
87. The Lord-Lieutenant and Council to the King, October 6; Surrey to Wolsey, November 3; Surrey to Wolsey, April 27, 1521.
88. The King to Surrey, No. 12 of the printed State Papers; the King to an Irishman, No. 14 of the same; Instructions for Sir John Petchie, No. 18 of the same.
89. Surrey to the King, July 31, 1521.
90. Stile to Wolsey, July 30, 1571; Surrey to the King, July 29 and September 14; Ware.
91. The King to Surrey, May 1520; Surrey to Wolsey, September 6 and 25; the King to Surrey, S.P. No. 12; Surrey to Wolsey, November 3; Surrey to the King, September 14, 1521.
92. Irish Statutes, 13 Henry VIII.
93. The Lord-Lieutenant and Council to the King, August 25, 1520. The King to Surrey, Nos. 12 and 19 in the printed S.P.
94. Surrey to the King, September 16, 1521; to Pace, December 2. The latter letter was written in bed. Surrey to Wolsey, August 2 and November 3, 1520.
95. The Council of Ireland to Wolsey, December 21 and February 28, 1522; Dowling’s Annals, 1519; Sir John Davies’ Discovery; the Book of Howth.
96. Four Masters; Annals of Lough Cé, 1522. Stile to Wolsey, April 25, 1522.
97. Four Masters, 1522; Annals of Lough Cé.
98. Ware; Lady Kildare to Wolsey, May 25, 1523.
99. Kildare to the King, May 24, 1523.
100. Indentures between Kildare, Ormond (sic), the King’s Commissioners, and others, July 28, 1524. The Commissioners were Sir A. Fitzherbert, Ralph Egerton, and James Denton, Dean of Lichfield.
