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Home Ireland under Tudors and Stuarts, 1485-1688 Part 2 |
Part 2From the accession of Henry VII till the year 1534 there is little to record in Irish history. An Irish bishop, so runs the story, once told Henry VII that all Ireland could not rule the Earl of Kildare. "Then", said the king, "he must be the man to rule all Ireland." At all events, whether the story is true or false, Ireland was governed for the greater part of this period by two successive earls of Kildare, though their rule was tempered by occasional intervals of imprisonment in the Tower of London (The first of these two earls, called "the Great Karl", ruled the country for nearly thirty years before his death in 1513. He was a person of remarkable gifts; moreover, he collected an excellent library of Latin, English, French, and Irish books, and his praises were sung by the great Italian poet of the day, Ariosto). It was during one of these periods when the Earl of Kildare was under suspicion of treason that Sir Edward Poynings was sent out to Ireland as " Lord Deputy". Poynings managed to get two laws passed in the Irish Parliament which made that Parliament completely dependent upon England; for no Parliament was in future to be summoned without the consent of the king and his Privy Council —the King in Council, as it was called nor could it discuss any bills without the consent of the same authority (1494).With the year 1534, Henry VIII began to take a more active part in the affairs of Ireland. 'The Earl of Kildare, of whose government complaints had been made, was summoned to England, and, his answers not being considered satisfactory, he was put, not for the first time, into the Tower. His son, called "Silken Thomas" from the silken fringe on his helmet, who had heard that his father had been executed and that his family were to be exterminated, rose in rebellion. But the great stronghold of the Geraldines in Leinster, the Castle of Maynooth, was taken by the new English lord deputy, and the army which Silken Thomas—now Earl of Kildare, as his father had died in the Tower—was bringing to its relief "melted away like a snow drift" on the news of its capture. Finally Thomas surrendered himself to the king's mercy and was sent to England, and, some months later, he and his five uncles, three of whom had been treacherously seized at a dinner party to which they had been invited, suffered the penalties of treason at Tyburn. So fell the great house of Kildare (Of the male branch of the family only one child—the brother of " Silken Thomas "—survived; but he was taken by his aunt to a place of safety in the wilds of Ireland, and eventually escaped to France. After fighting on behalf of the Knights of Rhodes against the Moors, he returned to Ireland, and was given back the Kildare lands in Mary's reign). |
Chronology |
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