Ireland under the Tudors. Bagwell Richard

104. Articles on behalf of Kildare, No. 42 in the printed State Papers; Dowling’s Annals, 1522-1524; Hibernia Dominicana. Bishop Doran, ‘eloquentissimus prædicator,’ 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.

113. Cowley had been in the service of the late Earl of Kildare. Book of Howth.

114. Instructions for the Lord Cardinal, No. 56 in the printed State Papers; Ossory to Wolsey, Oct. 14, 1528; Instructions by Charles V. to Gonzalo Fernandez in Carew, Feb. 24, 1530 (should be 1529). The letter to the Pope was July 30, 1530.

115. Instructions to Skeffington, No. 57 in the printed State Papers. He landed near Dublin, August 2, 1529.

116. Submission of O’Donnell, May 6, 1531. O’Donnell ‘publice proposuit et fatebatur dominum suum fuisse et esse fidelem et ligeum subditum Domini Regis;’ Four Masters, 1531. In his Instructions for Cromwell, Jan. 2, 1532, Ossory notes that his contingent was better than Kildare’s, and that he bore the whole cost himself.

117. Ossory to Cromwell, January 2, 1532.

118. Report to Cromwell, No. 64 of the printed State Papers; Lodge’s Peerage by Archdall, art. ‘Duke of Leinster.’ Ware; Stanihurst.

119. ‘Cui quidam turbarius jocose dixerat, “Domine, cur gemis tam dire, cum ego semel habui iii bulletos in me, et vides, domine, quam sanus sum ad præsens?” Cui comes mite respondit (in agonia) quod hunc etiam bulletum vellet ipsum in se una cum cæteris habuisse.’—Dowling’s Annals, wrongly placed at 1528.

120. Four Masters, 1532. Annals of Lough Cé.

121. Jus Primatiale Armachanum, Part I. No. 361; Dethyke to Cromwell, Sept. 3, 1533; Report to Cromwell, No. 64 of the printed State Papers; Sir James Fitzgerald to the King, August 31.

122. Report to Cromwell, printed State Papers, vol. ii. p. 174. Instructions to Sir John Alen, No. 63 in same.

123. Report to Cromwell, quoted above.

124. Skeffington to Cromwell, October 25 and November 4, 1533.

125. Stanihurst.

      CHAPTER X.

       THE GERALDINE REBELLION—SKEFFINGTON’S ADMINISTRATION, 1534-1535.

       Table of Contents

      Kildare is sent to the Tower.

Among the letters which Alen brought with him from England was one of thanks for past services to Connor Maguire, chief of Fermanagh. Maguire belonged to the party in Ulster which opposed O’Neill, and consequently Kildare; and he seems to have been in some degree under Alen’s influence. He now wrote to the King, adding to the already overwhelming case against Kildare, and praying for the appointment of Skeffington. This despatch probably reached London about the same time as the Earl, who was examined by the Council and at once sent to the Tower. The heaviest charge against him was that of fortifying his own castles with the King’s artillery; and it was in fact this which enabled his son to make head for a time against the Crown. He could only answer that he had intended to defend the Pale against the Irish: perhaps the hesitation caused by his wound was taken for the confession of guilt. He was no longer the man who had bearded Wolsey in his pride; and, unfortunately, his old power of repartee had descended to his son, who annoyed with his taunts those whom he should most have conciliated. The young Vice-Deputy made no secret of his dislike to the King’s policy, sought alliances with O’Brien and Desmond, and gave the enemies of his House plausible grounds for stigmatising him as a traitor from the very first.126

      His death prematurely reported.

Early in the summer of 1534 a report reached Ireland that Kildare was to be beheaded, and his son and brother arrested. A poor retainer of his house living near Kilcullen is said to have brought to Lord Offaly from London a little silver-gilt heart and a pair of black dice, with a verbal message from his father bidding him not to trust the Irish Council, but to keep out of the way lest he should lose life and liberty. About the same time a private letter from Thomas Cannon, who had been in Skeffington’s service, confirmed the sinister rumours already afloat. In days when there were no newspapers such letters were handed about freely, and this one fell into the hands of a priest who read English with difficulty, and who put it aside until he had time to spell out its meaning. A retainer of Offaly’s, who chanced to stay the night in the priest’s house, used the letter as a shoe-horn, and forgot to withdraw it. Undressing in the evening he found the paper, read it out of curiosity, and found to his dismay that it announced Kildare’s death. He at once took the fatal missive to James Delahide, who carried it to the Vice-Deputy. Delahide was one of those whose advice Kildare had directed his son to take: he now counselled him to rebel and to avenge his father’s death.127

      His son rebels.

Though his death was at hand Kildare still lived, and there is no reason to suspect foul play: he was old and suffering from wounds, and confinement or anxiety may well have hastened his end. But his impetuous son assumed the worst, and at once prepared for war. His Irish connections O’Neill and O’Connor approved his resolution; but the Earl of Desmond, Sir Thomas Eustace of Baltinglass, Fitzmaurice of Kerry, Fleming,