The earls of Kildare, especially Garret Mor (1477-1513) and his son, Garret Og (1513-34), were regarded in some ways as the virtual rulers of Ireland. But if so, it was the triumph before the fall, as immediately after their deaths the process of complete colonization by the English monarchy began. As indicated in the previous chapter, Kildare had benefited from the internal disorder in England that inhibited any extended effort by English monarchs to assert greater authority in Ireland. On the other hand, the English kings realized that what degree of authority they might have could be exercised only with the connivance of Kildare. Kildare was able to provide such assistance because of the remarkable authority and following he had among both many of the English nobility in Ireland and many of the Irish chieftains.
Soon after Garret Mor had succeeded his father Thomas in 1477, King Edward IV, now very much the successful master in England after the decisive defeat of the Lancasters a few years earlier, sought to appoint lieutenants to act for him in Ireland in place of Kildare. However, Kildare's dominance of the Irish council made the efforts of the king's appointee futile and the king acquiesced in Kildare's remaining deputy. In his short reign, King Richard III sought seriously to undermine Kildare by attempting contacts with other Anglo-Irish lords and even Irish leaders. However, the success of Henry Tudor at the Battle of Bosworth removed Richard's threat to Kildare's position. The new king, Henry VII, despite his familial ties to the Lancasters and his marital ties to the Yorkists, was not without serious challenges to his claim to the throne. Even though the king had recognized him as deputy, Garret Mor agreed in 1487 to support the claim to the throne by one of those pretenders, a 10-year-old boy named Lambert Simnel, who was purported to be Edward, earl of Warwick, and true heir to the throne. A large German mercenary force had come to Ireland in support of the pretender and was augmented by substantial Irish forces. The pretender was formally crowned in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, as Edward VI, king of England and Ireland (in contrast to the title Lord of Ireland). However, his forces were defeated when they invaded England. Garret Mor's brother lost his life in the battle. Nonetheless, Garret Mor was able to maintain his deputyship, even being entertained by the king in England (where it
Was claimed the young pretender, who was consigned to work in royal kitchens, waited on the table).
Several years later another pretender, Perkin Warbeck, appeared in Ireland claiming to be the duke of York. The earl of Desmond, and possibly Kildare, supported him for a while, but he was ultimately unsuccessful, being captured in 1497 and executed two years later. Henry VII had clearly become determined to inhibit Ireland from becoming a base from which to challenge his throne. He continued to work through Kildare, as well as the earl of Ormond (Kildare's rival), but he also appointed an Englishman named Edward Poynings as deputy. Poynings, with the aid of Kildare, won military successes against some Irish leaders. More permanent were his political achievements. He convened an Irish parliament, which it was hoped would make Ireland pay for itself, that is, support the English military presence. This proved futile, but more significant, a parliament in Drogheda in 1494 passed what became know as Poynings' Law, which required royal consent for the calling of any Irish parliament and required approval by the king and his council before any bill could be introduced for consideration by an Irish parliament. Afterward, the parliaments began to meet infrequently, often years between sessions, in contrast to an initial pattern of almost annual gatherings. It must be remembered, of course, that the parliaments were scarcely democratic institutions, but rather were drawn from a limited portion of the island's population and selected by a very limited electorate.
However, Henry VII, always financially prudent and disinclined to make great demands on the fiscal resources of England (where his own title was on possibly questionable grounds) and aware of the enormous cost of direct military control or conquest of Ireland, fell back on the policy of relying on Kildare as his agent in Ireland. Garret Mor was reappointed deputy in 1496. Henry even gave his own cousin, Elizabeth St. John, as a wife to the widower Kildare, as he realized that "since all Ireland cannot rule this man, this man must rule all Ireland." Kildare himself practiced the technique of diplomatic marriages as his sister was married to one of the leading Irish chieftains, Conn More O'Neill, and his daughters were married to a mixture of English and Irish lords, including even a Butler. Garret Mor was more than just a warrior leader of rival chieftains in a politically disunited Ireland. He was also a man of some culture as manifested by his library and his patronage of various churches and cathedrals. He died from gunshot wounds in 1513 and was succeeded by his son, Garret Og. The son had spent his formative years at the English royal court in an arrangement not very different from the Irish practice of fosterage. Also he was married to a royal ward.
The young king Henry VIII, who had been crowned in 1509, confirmed Garret Og as deputy. However, before long, the king, prompted especially by his adviser, Cardinal Wolsey, began to be suspicious of the "Irish" practices being tolerated by his deputy. Several times he summoned Garret Og to England to explain why he made concessions to certain Irish practices in the governance of Ireland. Henry was particularly anxious about reported contacts between the earl of Desmond and continental rulers, especially since Garret Og had contact with Desmond. Accordingly, he sent Thomas Howard, the earl of Surrey, to Ireland as lieutenant, a post not occupied since 1460, to bring the Irish lords to
"obedience" and "observance of our laws." Surrey brought with him 700 soldiers and was able to quickly secure submissions from several Irish chieftains, including O'Neill and O'Donnell in Ulster. Ultimately, he realized his task was impossible except by conquest, which could require 6,000 men, the construction of new towns, castles, and a program of colonization by English settlers. This was more than Henry was willing to attempt at the time, given various continental preoccupations. Accordingly, Surrey returned to England.
For the next decade the king deferred taking any direct action regarding Ireland. Instead, he played upon the rivalry of the Geraldines and the Butlers by having them serve alternately as deputy. The king became enamored of Anne Boleyn, a relation of the Butlers. Her father had gained the title of earl of Ormond, which required the resident Butler, Piers Roe, to accept compensation in the form of the title of earl of Ossory. The king's infatuation would set in motion a chain of events, including his suit for an annulment of his marriage with Catherine of Aragon, the replacement of his chief minister, Cardinal Wolsey, who had failed to secure papal agreement for the annulment, the rise to power of Thomas Cromwell, and Henry's break with the Church of Rome. Cromwell was an advocate of firmer assertion of royal authority in Ireland, as it had been developed in England. In other words, he espoused the "new politics," which called for governance by royal servants, rather than the occasional cooperation of quasi-independent lords kept somewhat in line by almost autonomous deputies like the Geraldines of Kildare.
In February 1534, after Henry had married Anne Boleyn and had broken with the church, Garret Og came to England in response to a summons for
Lord Thomas Fitzgerald renounces his allegiance to Henry VIII, 1534. (Mary Evans Picture Library)
Allegedly plotting treason. His cousin, James, the earl of Desmond, was already communicating with the kings of France and Spain. Garret Og designated his son Thomas to act as his deputy in his absence. A few months later the impetuous Thomas, hearing that his father was liable to be killed, threw down the gauntlet by resigning his office of state, denouncing Henry VIII as a heretic, ordering all Englishmen from his territory, and demanding oaths of allegiance to the Holy Roman Emperor, the pope, and himself. When word came to London, Henry had Garret Mor imprisoned in the Tower, where he died three months later. By then outright rebellion was well underway in Ireland with the king's authority almost destroyed. Then Sir William Skeffington, whom the king had sometime earlier made the deputy for Ireland, arrived with an army of 2,300 men.
The confrontation then assumed a new character. No longer was it simply an attempt to reassert the authority of the king as "lord" of Ireland over various Irish lords, whether English Irish or Irish. Instead, it was an attempt to impose the engines of the modern state on the hitherto loose, almost anarchic, system with its shifting arrangements of authority and uncertain patterns of succession. The English state now committed itself fully in terms of money and manpower to the achievement of control. This time the goal was not to look to the eventual acquiescence or submission of Irish lords, who in turn would be restored to authority as the king's men. Rather, new English servants or officials would enforce his will and his law.
The war lasted about a year. Skeffington's modern weaponry, especially artillery, was telling in the outcome. Many of Thomas's allies withdrew from the campaign. His own fortress, Maynooth, fell and he surrendered the following August. This time the traditional practice of pardon and reinstatement was not followed. Instead, a year and a half later, after things in Ireland had calmed and royal authority was in the ascendancy, Thomas, his five uncles, and nearly 100 others were hung and beheaded. However, a Geraldine resistance persisted for a few years after. Its instigator was Manus O'Donnell of Donegal, whose wife was a FitzGerald and aunt of Gerald, the youthful nephew of Silken Thomas and Kildare heir, who was on the Continent. A new alliance of many Irish lords had successfully invaded the Pale. However, they were routed by the forces of the new deputy, Lord Leonard Grey, when they withdrew with substantial booty in cattle. An ideology, which envisioned O'Neill as high king of Ireland and a restored earl of Kildare as his vassal, had inspired this movement. There was also opposition to Henry's attempt to extend his policy of religious reformation to Ireland. However, the criticism of the English as "heretics" might have been leveled more for popular consumption than real concern.
World History
