THE elTZ-GERALDS OF KILDARE (CONTINUED).
TWO of the daughters of the " Great Earl " Gerald were I remarkable women. The eldest, Lady Eleanor, married funk Donnell McCarthy Reagh, chief of Carbery, county Cork, and after his death Calvagh O'Donnell, chief of Tyrconnell, on condition that he protected her young relative, the eleventh Earl of Kildare, and separated from him on finding that he in- tended to surrender the young Earl. The second daughter, Lady Margaret, became the wife of Paris Butler, eighth Earl of Ormonde, and mother of James, ninth Earl, and of Richard, first Viscount Mountgaret. A writer calls her " a rare woman, and able for wisdom to rule a realm,"—and she gained the title of the " Great Countess of Ormonde." Her brother Gerald, ninth Earl of Kildare, is said to have been one of the handsomest men of his time. We have mentioned the earlier events of his life in speaking of his father, the Great Earl Gerald. He dis- tinguished himself in the conflicts of his father with the Irish, and on his death in 1513 was chosen by the Council Lord Justice of Ireland, and Henry VIII. raised him to the office of Lord Deputy. " This Earl," says the Marquis of Kildare, " appears to have followed the example of his father in considering it his duty, as representing the King, to govern and defend the Pale alone, and to have ruled the rest of his possessions as an Irish chief. The Pale at that time consisted of the counties of Dublin, Louth, Meath, and Kildare. The rest of the island was divided among about 30 great Anglo-Irish lords and 60 Irish chieftains." The career of the new Earl was a badly executed copy of his father's. He had enough of the craft which distinguished that remarkable nobleman to delude and baffie the English Govern- ment for some little time, but he had not the real sagacity of his father, and intoxicated by success, he fell into the dangerous error of throwing himself for support on the Irish chiefs alone, and so destroying that mixed and ambiguous relation to the two countries which had been the real foundation of the power possessed by his ancestors. His began his func- tions as Deputy in much the usual manner, making raids on the native chiefs, and establishing his own power to the utmost, at the expense alike of the English Crown and the rival Anglo-Irish houses. In 1517 his Countess died, and in the following year his brother-in-law, the Earl of Ormonde, and other noblemen for- warded to Court grave accusations against him of having appro- priated the Crown revenues, &c., and allied himself with the Irish enemies. He was summoned to England in 1519, and leaving his cousin, Sir Maurice Fitz-Gerald, as his Deputy, went over to meet the charges against him. In the beginning of 1520 the King de- prived Kildare of the office of Lord Deputy, and appointed the Earl of Surrey in his place, but the crafty Earl laid the foundation for the restoration of his fortunes by marrying while thus detained in England Lady Elizabeth Grey, fourth daughter of Thomas, Marquis of Dorset, and second cousin to Henry VIII. In June, 1520, he accompanied the King to France, and distinguished him- self at the Field of the Cloth of Gold by his brilliant bearing. In short he so won on Henry by his personal qualities, that though still distrusting his loyalty the King allowed him in January, 1523, to return to Ireland, where Surrey had been succeeded. by the Earl of Ormonde. But the Butlers, though powerful, and more attached on the whole to the English interest than the Fitz- geralds, were not able to govern with the same success, in conse- quence of their own possessions being separated from the seat of Government by fifty miles of dangerous country. Desmond was at this time in rebellion, and continued so, and Kildare intrigued against Ormonde and secretly abetted his kinsman. He and Ormonde made mutual charges against each other to the English Court, and in November, 1523, arbiters were appointed by the King, who, after hearing evidence, bound over both Earls to keep the peace for one year in bonds of 1,000 marks each ; but fresh outrages on the part of the Fitz-Geralds followed, and in June, 1524, commissioners arrived from England charged with inquiring into the facts, but with the provision that if they found the charges against Kildare not proved they were to rein- state him in the office of Deputy. This favourable stipulation was obtained through the influence of the Marquis of Dorset, Kildare's father-in-law, and through his means also the inquiry was held in Ireland. The result was that Kildare triumphed, and was re- appointed Deputy on August 4, 1524. Flushed with success, the Earl lost his head, and began, along with Desmond, to intrigue first with France, and afterwards with the Emperor and the Pope. He married his three daughters to O'Connor, O'Carroll, and the Baron of Slane. He was ordered to capture Desmond, who had been attainted of treason and was in arms, but he gave him secret information orhich enabled him to escape, and used his forces in cementing alliances among the Irish chiefs by making himself a party to their family feuds. Kildare went so far as to transfer the cannon and military stores from Dublin Castle to his own castle of Maynooth, and though Ormonde sent repeated informations against him he maintained his power till 1527 (in the crisis of the ICnes quarrel with the Pope), when he was again summoned to England, and appeared before the Council Board to answer for his conduct, where a violent scene ensued between him and Wolsey, who was
always his great opponent, and Kildare was sent to the Tower. Yet Wolsey advised that he should not be removed from the Deputyship, as there was no influence fit to replace him in Ireland,
but that he should be kept in England. It is a curious illustration of Kildare's personal influence that even Surrey, now Duke of
Norfolk, offered to become security for him, and he was liberated on the bail of the Greys and other relatives, and took up his residence at theD uke's house at Stoke Newington. But in July, 1528, Kildare, impatient of this restraint, sent over his daughter, Lady Slane, to incite O'Connor and O'Neill to invade the Pale, while Desmond held Ormonde in check. On this Kildare was deprived of his office of Lord Deputy and again committed to the Tower, and his brother-in-law, the head of the Butlers, was appointed in his place. But this arrangement not working well, Kildare was released in 1529, and then Henry resolved on the step of appointing his natural son, the Duke of Richmond, as nominal Lord-Lieutenant, and sent over Sir William Skeffington as Deputy.
He was ordered to govern with the advice and co-operation of the Earl of Kildare, who accompanied him to Ireland in August, 1530. The King, however, also sent over as a spy on Kildare, John Allen, one of the able men raised from nothing by Wolsey's penetration, and who was appointed Archbishop of Dublin. In a short time quarrels arose between the new Deputy and Kildare, and the latter at Easter, 1532, again repaired to England, and again succeeded in July in obtaining his own restoration to the office of Lord Deputy, and returned in triumph to Ireland in the August following. He immediately deprived Archbishop Allen of the Chancellorship, which he conferred on a creature of his own, the Archbishop of Armagh. The Aliens, however, the Archbishop and a kinsman who was Master of the Rolls, kept up their report to the King of Kildare's proceedings, and the Tudor wrath, though slow and measured, was a certain and dangerous thing. Kildare maintained his power and acted much as before till February, 1534, when the Papal sentence of excommunication was hanging over Henry's head. Then Henry resolved to take a decided step, and Kildare was again summoned to London. Trusting to his former arts, he again ventured over, but the term of Tudor forbearance had expired, and any further toleration of his conduct had become under the present circumstances dangerous. Kildare never again left the Tower, to which he was consigned. He had previously appointed his son Thomas Fitz-Gerald, Lord Offaly, "Silken Thomas," as he was called, his Deputy, but as this young noble- man had accompanied his father to England, the old Earl now hurriedly sent him back to Ireland, with instructions to rise in open rebellion against the English Government. The Earl himself lingered on in prison till the 12th of December, 1534, when he died, just after he had received the news of the excommunication
of his son. A very severe judgment is passed upon him by Mr. Froude, and no doubt in many respects this is justified by his public acts. But there seems to have been another sido to his
character, and he is described on the unexceptionable authority of a despatch from the Earl of Ormonde and the Lords of the
Council to Cromwell, after his death, as " the greatest improver
of his lands in this land ;" and notwithstanding the injuries inflicted on the Pale by his last Irish alliance, he relieved Kildare from
the quartering of Galloglasses on it, and assessed them upon the Irish. So that it is probable that Kildare was a good lord to his own people and a good friend to his friends and allies, though he was a ruthless enemy and a disloyal subject. His second daughter by his second wife, the Lady Elizabeth Fitz-Gerald, was the " Fair Geraldine of romance, who became one of the Maids of Honour to the Lady Mary (afterwards Queen Mary Tudor) in 1542, and was made the ideal heroine of Lord Surrey's poems.
That there was any real passion on his part seems not at all probable, as she was a mere child at the time of the composition of his earliest sonnet to her. But romance, which transported him to Italy, where he probably never was at all, has also blended his name with hers in a tissue of the wildest fables.
Thomas, tenth Earl of Kildare, as he called himself, but as he was never recognized by the English Government, having
arrived in Ireland by his father's orders in 1534, at once prepared for revolt. He was then Lord Offaly, but was usually called
"Lord Thomas." As a formal preliminary, on the 11th of June, while the Irish Council were sitting in St. Mary's Abbey, Lord Thomas, at the head of a hundred and forty young Geraldines, galloped up to the gate, and springing off his horse, strode into the assembly, and solemnly surrendered his Sword of State as Vice-Deputy, and renounced his allegiance to Henry, adding the most violent invectives against the Bing. He spoke in Irish, and when the Chancellor interposed a few words of timid remonstrance in English, the young nobleman—he was in his twenty-first year —interrupted him with an Irish battle chant, and with his wild followers rushed out of the abbey and galloped off. The first stage of the rebellion was very serious for England.. By influence or force Lord Thomas induced most of the inhabitants of the Pale to join his banner, and summoned Dublin, which was held only by Sir John White, a brave English soldier, with a hundred men- at-arms. The citizens of Dublin were divided in opinion, and White, finding it impossible to hold both town and castle, aban- doned the former, and gathering hastily what provisions he could, prepared for a desperate resistance in the latter, which had been denuded by Kildare of almost all its military stores. Fitz-Gerald immediately laid siege to the castle on the 27th of July. Archbishop Allen, attempting to escape into England, was betrayed into the hands of the Fitz-Geralds, and on the 28th was murdered in the presence of the young lord and three of his uncles, and his chap- lains and all his servants who were of English blood shared the same fate. The Fitz-Geralds then despatched the Archbishop of galls to the Pope and the Emperor, to acquaint them with their enterprise, ask assistance, and obtain absolution for the murder of Allen. Meanwhile Dublin Bay was blockaded by pirate ships, and the garrison of the castle reduced to great extremities. They must have surrendered,—for Sir William Skeffington, who had been appointed Deputy, was an old man, unfit mentally and bodily for the office, and he delayed his preparations for relieving the place in an almost unaccountable manner—had not the hostility of the Butlers to the Fitz-Geralds saved the English Government. The Earl of Ormonde, at this time attached to the English connection, and fearful of the consequences to his family if the rebellion succeeded, relieved the castle by a raid into Kildare's own country, and Fitz-Gerald, leaving a detachment in the town of Dublin, hastened to oppose his rival and retaliate on his ter- ritories. But now the citizens of Dublin rose on the detachment he had left behind, and made prisoners of them. On this Lord Thomas had to abandon his revenge. But before retiring he made an attempt to persuade Ormonde to join him by tempting offers of lands, spoil, and power. But he was unsuccessful, though he managed to delude the Butlers into a truce, under cover of which he inflicted much damage upon them, and leaving a cordon round Ormonde to prevent his relieving Dublin; Fitz-Gerald hastened back to recommence the siege of that place. Again the garrison was reduced to the last extremities. Skeffington still delayed sailing, but again Ormonde saved them by breaking through the line of enemies, and again invading Kildare's country. At last, on the 14th of October, Skeffington set sail, but on arriving off the coast he suffered himself to be deluded by a false report that Dublin-had already surrendered to Fitz-Gerald, and sending only a detachment towards that town (headed by two officers who dis- believed the news), he prepared to concentrate his main force at Waterford. The consequence was that while Dublin was reached by this detachment without opposition, Skeffington himself suffered several losses from the Fitz-Geralds before, on the 21st of October, he made up his mind to join his detachment in that town. Arrived there, he delayed any further operations, disappointed Ormonde in his promised co-operation, and with • trifling exceptions left Lord Thomas undisturbed master of the open country. The army became demoralized during this long inactivity, and the Irish began to speculate on the probability of Kil- dare returning in triumph, and Fitz-Gerald being as be- fore pardoned and rewarded for his treason by the English Government. At last the King appointed Lord Leonard Grey ChinfiMarshal of the army, employing seemingly the old Tudor device of making use of relatives to destroy their own kith and kin. He, however, would not send Grey over till the summer of 1535, and meanwhile sent peremptory orders to Skeffington to march with his army from Dublin. Accordingly on the 14th of March, 1535, the Deputy appeared before Maynooth Castle—then deemed impregnable—and on the 23rd, after battering it with artillery, took it by storm. Thirty-seven survivors of the garrison were taken prisoners, with two officers, two Irish ecclesiastics, and one of the murderers of the Archbishop (another had meanwhile died of a painful disease). A court-martial was held, and twenty-six were hung on the spot. This was called the " Pardon of May- nooth," and the immediate consequences were the desertion of Fitz-Gerald's followers and the complete collapse of the rebellion. Like Cromwell's seventies at Drogheda, the terror of the example produced what no other means could half so rapidly have produced—though we are not justifying the proceeding in the latter case—and broke the spirit of the rebels. They felt that the English Government was at last in earnest, and the hopelessness of their struggle flashed upon their minds. Lord Thomas, or Lord Kildare, as he now called •himself, was a fugitive, safe from fear of betrayal by the Irish, but des- tined to fall a victim to perhaps the unintentional treachery of his relative, Lord Leonard Grey. In August Kildare wrote to Grey, who had arrived in Ireland, and was with the army offering to surrender if assured of pardon, but holding out a threat of resistance to extremities if this was refused. Grey persuaded him to have a personal interview, which took place on the 18th. At this meeting Grey declared he had no authority to grant a pardon, but held out hopes of such being granted if Kildare surrendered unconditionally, and promised himself to accompany him to Eng- land and plead his cause. On this Kildare surrendered. A great discussion ensued in the English Council as to what should be done under these circumstances, but the difficulty was solved by the wily Norfolk suggesting the middle course of detention in prison for the present time and the execution of the sentence at some future period, as less injurious to the Royal honour, which had been partially pledged by Grey. This course was followed. Kildare and his uncles who had been implicated with him in the rebellion were thrown into the Tower, where the commencement of the Earl's name, " Thomas Fitz-G—," is engraved (probably by his own hand) on a stone in the State prison, the inscription never having been finished. At length, after an imprisonment of sixteen months, the Earl, on the 3rd of February, 1537, was hung, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn as a traitor, and his five uncles shared the same fate. Thus for the time fell the great House of the Geraldines of Kildare.
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