Earl of Kildare

“ The theory that the Kildares were the only people who could carry on the government had by this time become firmly established. No one in Ireland could stand against the earl, and when the earl was out of Ireland the whole island was in an uproar. The confusion too between Kildare in his proper person, and Kildare as the king's Viceroy was, it must be owned, a perennial one, and upon more than one occasion had all but brought the government to an absolute standstill. ”

“ Three years later, Earl Gerald set out to besiege Leap Castle, in O'Moore's country; but it happened that as he was watering his horse in the little river Greese, at Kilkea, he was shot by one of the O'Moores: he was immediately carried to Athy, where shortly afterwards he expired. If we except the first Hugh de Lacy and the Red Earl of Ulster, the Normans in Ireland had not produced a more illustrious man than Gerald, eighth Earl of Kildare. ”

“ Boice, a secret friend of the Fitzgerald, a bystander, cried out "Auntraugh," i. e. "too late," which occasioned a proverbial saying, long afterwards used in Ireland—"Too late, quoth Boice." The castle is said by Archdall to have been erected by John, the sixth Earl of Kildare, early in the fifteenth century; [Pg 490] but in that case it must have been preceded by some other defensive structure; for it is certain that the Kildare branch of the Geraldines resided at Maynooth at a much earlier period. The first Earl of Kildare, John Fitz Thomas, was created by patent, dated 14th May, 1316. ”

“ In January 1393 he complained to the king that, being minded, by the advice of the Anglo-Irish lords, and others, to go to England to lay the evils of the country before the sovereign, the Earl of Kildare quartered a hundred ‘kernemen’ on the lands of his seigniory of Ballymore in county Dublin (ib. pp. 130–132) . ”

“ The king seems to have felt, that Kildare was less dangerous as sheep-dog--even though a head-strong one--than as wolf, even a wolf in a cage. He released him and restored him to his command. Prince Henry, according to custom, becoming nominally Lord-Lieutenant, with Kildare as deputy under him. The earl's wife had lately died, [pg 141] and before leaving England he strengthened himself against troubles to come by marrying Elizabeth St. John, the king's cousin, and having left his son Gerald behind as hostage for his good behaviour, sailed merrily home to Ireland. ”

“ Before his release Keatinge undertook to drive the Geraldine chief out of Kildare. The wretched peasants crept back to their fields to save what was left of the harvest; and Cahir O’Connor, who saw how things were likely to end, came to Grey and Brabazon, and took an oath to defend the King’s interests against Kildare, and against his own brother. The Earl had a stronghold in a boggy wood near Rathangan, fortified with earthworks and wet ditches, and almost impregnable had it been well manned and armed. Not being defended it was easily taken, and whatever would burn was burned. ”

“ In 1521 he was appointed to the archbishopric of Dublin. In 1527 he was made lord chancellor of Ireland, and held the office until his death, being 'accounted a person of great probity and justice' (Wood, Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, ii. 732) . He strongly sympathised with Gerald Fitzgerald, ninth earl of Kildare [q. v.] , and his party, and protested in a letter written to Wolsey Jointly with Chief-justice Bermingham, against Kildare's imprisonment in 1528, and against the accusation of treason brought against him. ”

“ Sir Richard first touched at Kinsale, where he received the homage of the Lords Barry and de Courcy; he then sailed to Waterford, where he delivered to the Mayor royal letters confirming the city in its privileges, and authorizing its merchants to seize and distress those of Dublin, unless they made their submission. After leaving Waterford, he landed at Malahide, passing by Dublin, to which he proceeded by land, accompanied with his guard. The Earl of Kildare was absent on a pilgrimage, from which he did not return for several days. ”

“ Rymer, ii. 2) . According to the Earl of Kildare, quoting from Ware, in 1273 'he invaded Offaly, but was betrayed by his own people into the hands of the O'Conors' (Earls of Kildare, p. 16, but cf. Ware, p. 57) . ”

“ When the old earl heard the news in his cell in the Tower he sent a message to Henry VIII. asking pardon for the rashness of his son and then died of a broken heart.
All Ireland was in flames; three-fourths of Kildare County and the greater part of Meath was burned; thousands of innocent people died of starvation and thousands in battle before the rebellion was suppressed. Finally Kildare, who was then but twenty-four, surrendered upon a promise that he should receive full pardon when he arrived in London and renewed his allegiance personally to the king. ”

“ Harsenet. Carola, daughter of Sir Roger Harsnett, knight. These verses are a variation of 'To my Lady Morland at Tunbridge.' vide p. 175.
p. 395 A letter to the Earl of Kildare. John FitzGerald, 18th Earl of Kildare, lived in St. James' Square, and in 1648 married, as his second wife, Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Charles Jones, 1st Earl of Ranelagh ('a fortune of £10,000.') She died in 1758 at the great age of ninety-three. ”

“ Treaties with Irishmen were not to be made to prejudice the Crown, nor were pardons to be given without the consent of the Council. The King’s castles were to be kept in repair, and the Earl was to do his best to make the people of the Pale speak, dress, and shave like Englishmen. The salaries of the judges were to be paid; and Kildare promised if possible to have sheriffs, escheators, and coroners appointed in Meath, Dublin, Louth, Wexford, Kilkenny, Tipperary, and Waterford, and to provide for the holding of Quarter Sessions in due course. ”

“ Once every seven years the Earl rides round the Curragh of Kildare on a steed, whose silver shoes were half an inch thick the time he disappeared; and when these shoes are worn as thin as a cat's ear, he will be restored to the society of living men, fight a great battle with the English, and reign king of Ireland for two-score years. ”

“ On July 14th, nearly a fortnight before the insurrection actually broke out, the Archbishop of Dublin met Kildare on the legendary hill of Tara. Baltinglas was only two miles off, and in charge of the Earl’s own troop. Kildare had been told everything, and he informed Loftus that the Viscount and other Papists had conspired and were ready to rebel. ‘The first exploit they will do,’ he said, ‘is to kill you and me; you, for the envy they bear to your religion, and me, for that being taken away, they think there is no one to make head against them.’ Dr. ”

“ Kildare was involved in the opposition led by Maurice Fitzthomas, earl of Desmond [q. v.] , to the new policy which the justiciar, Ralph D'Ufford, endeavoured to enforce, of superseding the 'English born in Ireland' by 'English born in England.' In 1345 Ufford sent a knight named William Burton to Kildare with two writs, one summoning him to an expedition to Munster, the other a secret warrant for his arrest. ”

“ This made William very eager to procure the succession to his estates and dignity for a young bastard son, born in Ireland, and generally called William de Vescy of Kildare. With this object he fell in easily with the policy that Edward I was then employing with regard to Roger Bigod, fifth earl of Norfolk [q. v.] , and many other nobles. On 18 Feb. 1297 he surrendered his castle and liberty of Kildare to the king on condition of his and his brother's debts to the exchequer being forgiven. ”

“ And Kildare is restored.
[Pg 266] The permission was sufficient; in 1524 he was again deputy; and no deliberate purpose of misrule could have led to results more fatal. The earl, made bold by impunity, at once prepared for a revolt from the English crown. Hitherto he had been contented to make himself essential to the maintenance of the English sovereignty; he now launched out into bolder measures, and encouraged by Henry's weakness, resolved to dare the worst Desmond makes a league with Francis I.,
Kildare secretly conniving at it, and preparing for a general insurrection. ”

“ Despotism in some form was the only practical and possible government, and Earl Gerald was all but despotic within the Pale, and even outside it was at any rate stronger than any other single individual. The Desmond Geraldines lived remote, the Butlers, who came next to the Geraldines in importance, held Kilkenny, Carlow, and Tipperary, but were cut off from Dublin by the wild mountains of Wicklow, and the wilder tribes of O'Tooles, and O'Byrnes who held them. They were only able to approach it through Kildare, and Kildare was the head-quarters of the Geraldines. ”

“ Kildare, which, however, was shortly afterwards suppressed with other religious houses in 1538. In 1516 he conducted an expedition against the O'Tooles, who by their constant depredations considerably annoyed the citizens of Dublin. Marching west he next invaded Ely O'Carroll, where he was joined by several noblemen of Munster and Leinster, including Piers, earl of Ormonde, and James, eldest son of the Earl of Desmond. ”

“ FitzGerald, Richard, 3rd Earl of Kildare, 182
FitzGerald, Robert, 190
FitzGerald, Robert, 19th Earl of Kildare, 190
*FitzGerald, Thomas, 136
FitzGerald, Thomas, 2nd Earl of Kildare, 181
FitzGerald, Thomas, 7th Earl of Kildare, 182
FitzGerald, Thomas, 10th Earl of Kildare, 186
*FitzGerald, Thomas an-Apa, 136
FitzGerald, Wentworth, 17th Earl of Kildare, 190
FitzGerald, William, 13th Earl of Kildare, 190
FitzGerald, William, 2nd Duke of Leinster, 191
FitzGibbon, John, Earl of Clare, 195
FitzHenry, Miler, 198
FitzMaurice, James, 199
FitzMaurice, Thomas, Lord of Kerry, 199 ”

“ It is said that on one occasion he complained of Kildare to the Council, and that he shed tears in the course of his speech ‘for pity,’ as he said, ‘upon his father’s son.’ ‘He is,’ retorted the Earl, ‘like the plover taken in setting his snares, and waiting for his desired purpose, his eyes being against the wind and the water dropping out. So many plovers as he taketh he knocketh their brains out with his thumb, notwithstanding his watery tears of contemplation. Even like doth Mr. Cowley with me ”

“ Kildare was impoverished, more especially the Earl’s own property, by the incursion of the O’Mores, and old Henry Cowley ‘with tears in his eyes’ told the Lord Deputy that the Barony of Carbery was 3,000l. poorer than when they had last met. Carlow was more than half waste through outlaws of various kinds, ‘some living under Sir Edmund Butler,’ and it was to be feared that Sir Peter Carew’s place would be ill-supplied by his young kinsman. The side of Wexford which bordered on Carlow and Kilkenny was also in very evil case. ”

“ Kildare and Grey respectively asserted rights as governors, and presided over rival parliaments of the English settlement in Ireland. After the termination of the contest Kildare was, in 1481, appointed as deputy in Ireland for the viceroy, Richard, duke of York, and during the closing years of Edward IV advanced much in wealth and influence. He married Alison, daughter of Sir Rowland Fitzeustace, baron of Portlester, and formed alliances with the most important Irish and Anglo-Irish families. ”

“ Oh, there is a starlight sparkling from the eye of a Kildare beauty that is scarcely equaled, and could not be excelled, all over the world. And remember that you are the sons, the fathers, the brothers, and the husbands of such women, and a traitor or a coward could never be connected with any of them. Yes, I am in a county, remarkable in the history of Ireland for its bravery and its misfortune, for its credulity in the faith of others, for its people judged of the Saxon by the honesty and honor of their own natures. ”

“ It seems strange that Kildare is not larger and more prosperous, for if not situated in a picturesque part of the island, the country round it is very fair and fertile, and beautiful as any flat country could be. ”

“ Close to the church are an ancient cross and a very fine round tower (its summit unhappily restored with a modern battlement) 1051⁄2 ft. high, with a doorway with unusual ornament of Romanesque character. There are remains of a castle of the 13th century, and of a Carmelite monastery. From the elevated situation of the town, a striking view of the great central plain of Ireland is afforded. Kildare was incorporated by James II., and returned two members to the Irish parliament. ”

“ During the course of the summer the troubles in Ireland increased. Lord Kildare returned thither towards the end of June, after having presented a Memorial to the King against the administration of the Duke of Dorset, and the ascendant of the Primate. Nothing could be worse drawn: he was too weak to compose better, and too obstinate to submit to any correction. No facts were alleged against the Lord Lieutenant, nor any crime pretended in the Primate but that he was a Churchman. ”

“ The work of the two great Earls of Kildare is one of the most critical periods of Irish history: it still awaits a historian. Who has examined the history of the schools and education? Who has worked out the industrial development? How can we learn what were the negotiations by which Henry viii. carried the claim to be King of Ireland? Here are fields too long deserted waiting for workers. ”