The Viceroys of Ireland

by Charles Kingston O'Mahony

CHAPTER IV

The death of Henry VII. and the accession of Henry VIII. tended to strengthen Kildare's position. He was continued in his office, and held it until his death in 1513. Accounted one of the handsomest and bravest men of his time, he was succeeded by his son in the deputyship, as well as in the family honours, and Gerald, ninth earl, was worthy of such a parent. For seven years Kildare was the deputy, with the exception of a brief period in England when Viscount Gormanstown was vice-deputy. His enemies were secretly trying to undermine his position, for the rise of the Kildare family was resented by the other great Anglo-Irish houses.

Cardinal Wolsey's nominee

In 1518, shortly after the death of his wife, Kildare was ordered to repair to London and answer the charges that he had illegally enriched himself and his followers, and that he had formed alliances with the native Irish and corresponded with them. Kildare, however, showed no hurry to obey the summons, and not until 1519 did he arrive in London, his cousin, Sir Maurice Fitzgerald, looking after his official responsibilities. While in London, Kildare followed the example of his father, and married a cousin of the king. This was the Lady Elizabeth Grey, a grand-daughter of Elizabeth Woodville, Edward IV.'s wife. The marriage saved Kildare's life, for his most powerful enemy, Cardinal Wolsey, had resolved that the Irish earl should never return to his country. Acting on the advice of the Cardinal, Henry VIII., suspicious of the loyalty of the Irish nobility, appointed an Englishman, the Earl of Surrey, afterwards Duke of Norfolk, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. Surrey was one of Wolsey's adherents, and although the Earl of Kildare had, by reason of his valour and bearing on the famous 'Field of the Cloth of Gold,' risen high in Henry's favour, the Chancellor insisted upon his being brought to trial. To make certain of the result, Wolsey inspired the Earl of Surrey to write from Ireland charging Kildare with having attempted to make the Irish oppose the authority of the new deputy, but, owing to the influence of his wife, Kildare secured his acquittal, and returned to Ireland.

The Earl of Ormonde was selected in 1523 to succeed Surrey, principally because he was Kildare's bitter enemy, but Elizabeth, Henry's cousin and Kildare's wife, wrote to the king beseeching him to reconcile the earls and bring peace to their respective families. Henry responded by sending a commission to try the charges preferred by Ormonde against Kildare, and, when it found in favour of the latter, he became deputy once more. But again his enjoyment of the office was brief, further charges being preferred against him by Ormonde, now Earl of Ossory. Again Kildare went to London, and was imprisoned in the Tower, his brother, Sir James Fitzgerald, taking his post. While Kildare was in the Tower, Wolsey attempted to have him executed without the knowledge of the king, but at the last moment the Lieutenant-Governor sought confirmation from His Majesty, and discovered that the Cardinal's order lacked the king's approval.

The Earl of Ossory was now deputy, Kildare remaining in London after his release from the Tower. Several noblemen went bail for his good conduct, and although there was another period of royal disfavour in 1532, he accompanied Sir William Skeffington, the new Lord-Deputy, to Ireland, and received a welcome that overshadowed that accorded to the king's representative. It is interesting to note that in 1530 Holbein painted this remarkable man's portrait, and that in the same year he was one of the peers who signed the letter to the Pope setting forth the grounds of Henry's divorce from Catherine.

Death of "King Kildare"

In 1532 he was once more deputy, and he gained the adherence of the Irish by marrying two of his daughters to Irish chiefs. The country was now at his feet; he was respected and obeyed. But he had enemies whose pertinacity equalled his, and they soon aroused the suspicions of a monarch whose chief weakness was a disinclination to trust others or cultivate loyalty in himself. Henry at once ordered the deputy to come to him; instead, Kildare sent his wife to act as mediator. The countess was a clever woman, but Henry's experience of the sex was extensive, as we know, and he declined to receive her more than once. He wanted the person of Kildare, and eventually that nobleman obeyed the summons. The earl appointed his twenty-year old son, Thomas, Lord Offaly, deputy, and left Ireland, never to return. Lord Offaly was something of the mould of his father, and, although young, had been trained from early years to rule. When, therefore, a rumour reached Dublin that the Earl of Kildare had been executed by Henry's orders, Lord Offaly immediately resigned his office, and gathered his followers under his banner with the avowed object of driving the English out of Ireland. The earl was quickly apprised of his son's rebellion, and a copy of the youthful lord's sentence of excommunication shown him. The effect was to hasten Kildare's death, and he died in the Tower on December 12, 1534. Great as had been his father, Gerald, ninth earl, was even greater, and Wolsey, although he spoke sarcastically, was not wrong when he described him as 'King Kildare, who reigned, rather than ruled, in Ireland.'

Sir William Skeffington, the deputy, was ordered to crush the rebellion, and he pursued the Kildare faction into their strongholds, besieging the Castle of Maynooth, while its owner was in Connaught collecting troops. The castle could have held out until the arrival of its owner, but the inevitable Irish traitor appeared in the person of Christopher Parese, a creature who had received many benefits at the hands of Lord Offaly and his father. Parese betrayed the castle for a reward, which was promptly paid him, but the deputy immediately had him executed, because he dare not trust a rogue who had already betrayed one benefactor. Treachery was again employed by Skeffington's successor, Lord Grey, and eventually Lord Offaly, tenth Earl of Kildare, and five of his uncles were executed on Tower Hill. The ten-year-old heir to the earldom would, doubtless, have perished also, but he had a remarkable mother, who kept him in hiding for some years, and succeeded in smuggling him out of the country to France, where his education was supervised by the famous Cardinal Pole.