Ireland under the Tudors Part 14

[Sidenote: Charges acc.u.mulate against Kildare.]

The Council did not directly attack Kildare; but they sent over Sir John Alen, the Master of the Rolls, to enlighten Henry upon the true state of affairs. They directed Alen to report that English laws and customs were unknown except within twenty miles of Dublin, and that unless something were done they would soon be driven even from that contracted area.

Various errors of policy, such as the practice of entrusting viceregal power to Irish lords and of giving away Crown lands, had so strengthened the Irishry and weakened the Pale, that the King would soon not have revenue enough to maintain a Deputy. Two archbishops, two bishops, four of the great regular ecclesiastics, two temporal peers, and three judges signed the doc.u.ment embodying these severe strictures, and they reminded Henry that unless he looked the better to it, Ireland might be used against him by any enterprising foreign enemy. Even more outspoken was a native of Ireland, closely a.s.sociated with the Master of the Rolls, who declared that loyal subjects had been ill requited, and that people had come to look upon the viceroyalty as part of Kildare's inheritance.

Everyone who opposed him suffered for it, and all his offences were pa.s.sed over. 'Always after the malice of the Geraldines was resisted and the land staid, the King withdrew his aid from thence, putting the malefactors in his authority; whereas, if he had continued the same there, and suppressed the others, undoubtedly a marvellous profit and commodity should have issued thereby.... What subjects under any prince in the world would love, obey, or defend the right of that prince, which (notwithstanding their true hearts and service toward him) would afterwards put them under the governance of such as should daily practise to prosecute and destroy them for the same?' The question has often been asked in Ireland since then.[122]

[Sidenote: The Geraldines become intolerable.]

The confusion between the Earl of Kildare, in his own character, and in that of Lord Deputy, was not at all conducive to good government. Private opposition to the subject was easily represented as treason to the King in his representative's person, and was indeed likely enough to grow into it. It was believed that the recent murder of Ossory's son Thomas by Dermot Fitzpatrick was not altogether the work of Irishry. Kildare and his sons and brothers provoked attacks on every side. The moral effect of O'Byrne's raid had of course been disastrous, and no one felt himself safe. The princ.i.p.al remedies suggested were the appointment of a Deputy for a long term, Norfolk being preferred, and after him Skeffington, the abolition of Irish customs, and the education of young n.o.blemen 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]

[Sidenote: 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]

[Sidenote: 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 p.r.o.nounce 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 Ce_.

[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. h.o.r.e 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 Ce_, 1522. Stile to Wolsey, April 25, 1522.

[97] _Four Masters_, 1522; _Annals of Lough Ce_.

[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. Kildare to the King, May 24, 1523.

[101] Indentures as above; Recognisances for the Marchers, July 12, 1524.

[102] Indentures between Kildare and the King, August 4, 1524.

Recognisances for the Marchers, July 12, 1574. Ware.

[103] The King to Kildare, May 20, 1525; Articles on behalf of Kildare, No. 42 in printed _State Papers_; _Presentments of the County and City of Kilkenny_, 1537, ed. h.o.r.e and Graves; Sir Piers Butler to his son, April 22, 1524.

[104] Articles on behalf of Kildare, No. 42 in the printed _State Papers_; Dowling's _Annals_, 1522-1524; _Hibernia Dominicana_. Bishop Doran, 'eloquentissimus praedicator,' was killed in 1525.

[105] _Four Masters_, 1525 and 1526; Ware, 1526.

[106] Stanihurst; Lord James Butler to his father, Dec. 27, 1527, in _Brewer_; Ware; Russell.

[107] Stanihurst; Russell.

[108] Consideration by Vannes and Uvedale, No. 52 in the printed _State Papers_.

[109] See _Brewer_, introduction to vol. iv., p. 238, where there is a confusion between Sir Piers and his son.

[110] _Carew_, Feb. 22, 1528.

[111] Inge and Bermingham to Wolsey, Feb. 23, 1528; to Norfolk, May 15; the Council of Ireland to Wolsey, same date; Lord Butler to Inge, May 20.

[112] The Council of Ireland to Wolsey, May 15; Ossory to Inge, May 21; to the King, June 10.