on the discovery of his intriguing with the Irish princes to induce them to commit assaults on the Pale, so as to make his return appear necessary. Liberated again, he was one of the peers who in 1530 signed the letter to the Pope relative to the divorce of Queen Catharine. The same year, to the joy of his retainers, he was permitted to return to Ireland with Skeffington, the new Lord-Deputy. On his arrival he marched against the O'Tooles to punish them for ravages on his tenantry in his absence, and then accompanied the Deputy against the O'Donnells. The friendship of the Deputy and Earl did not last long, and they sent letters and messages to the King accusing each other. The Deputy, as might be expected, was supported by the Butlers. Nevertheless, the Earl appears to have cleared himself, and to have been appointed to succeed Skeffington as Deputy to the Duke of Richmond. Landing at Dublin in this capacity, in August 1532, Klildare was received with great acclamations. But lengthened peace appeared impossible. He insulted the late Deputy, degraded Allen, Archbishop of Dublin, wasted the territories of the Butlers, was accused of forming alliances with the native chiefs, and in 1533 the council reported to the King that such was the animosity between the Earls of Kildare and Ormond that peace was out of the question so long as either of them was Deputy. At this period, Kildare had partially lost the use of his limbs and his speech, in consequence of a gun-shot wound received in an attack upon the O'Carrolls at Birr. He was again summoned to court; and in February 1534, at a council at Drogheda, in an affecting speech, he nominated his son Thomas, Lord Offaly, as Vice-Deputy, and then, embracing him and the lords of the council, set sail for England. On his arrival in London he was arraigned on several charges, and was committed to the Tower, where he died of grief, 12th December 1534, on hearing of his son's rebellion, and perusing the excommunication launched against him. He was buried in St. Peter's church in the Tower. He is described as valiant and well-spoken, "nothing inferior to hys father in marshall prowesse," hospitable and religious, beloved by his friends and dependants. He strengthened and kept in repair several castles — Rathangan, Rheban, Kildare, Woodstock, Athy, Kilkea, Castledermot, and Carlow. His likeness, painted by Holbein in 1530, is still preserved at Carton; while a book containing his rent-roll, and lists of his horses, plate, and furniture, is in the British Museum. From it we learn that his library consisted of 31 Latin, 37 French, 22 English, and 18 Irish books. The war cries of the time — "Crom-a-boo" (from Croom Castle, and "a buaid," to victory) of the Kildares, "Shanet-a-boo" (from Shanid Castle) of the Desmonds, and "Lamhlaider-a-boo" ("the strong hand to victory") of the O'Briens, as well as the other Irish war cries — were declared illegal by 10 Henry VII. c. 20. 41 42
FitzGerald, Lady Elizabeth, generally known as "The Fair Geraldine," daughter of the preceding by his second wife Lady Elizabeth Grey, was born about 1528, and was still an infant when she was taken by her mother to England. She was brought up at Hunsden, with the Princesses Mary and Elizabeth. When about thirteen she was there seen by the Earl of Surrey, who has immortalized her in several sonnets. There is no reason to suppose that the friendship which existed between them in the following years was anything but Platonic.
"From Tuskaue came my ladies worthy race; Faire Florence was sometime her auncient seate ; The western yle, whose plesant shore doth face WUde Cambers clifs, did gyve her liuely heate ; Fostred she was with milke of Irish brest ; Her sire, an Erie ; her dame of princes blood : From tender yeres, in Britain she doth rest With kinges chUde, where she tasteth costly food. Honsden did first present her to mine yien ; Bright is her hewe, and G^eraldine she hight : Hampton me taught to wishe her first for mine : And Windsor, alas, doth chase me from her sight. Her beauty of kind, her vertues from aboue ; Happy is he, that can obtaine her loue I "
There is an apocryphal story that Surrey, at a tournament at Florence, defied all the world to show such beauty as hers, and that he visited the celebrated alchemist, Cornelius Agrippa, who revealed to him in a magic mirror the object of his affections. Scott, in his Lay of the Last Minstrel, recounts the tale in five stanzas, of which the following is one:
" Fair all the pageant— but how passing fair
The slender form, that lay on couch of Ind 1 O'er her white bosom strayed her hazel hair,
Pale her dear cheek, as if for love she pined ; All iu her night-robe loose, she lay reclined,
And, pensive, read from tablet ebumine Some strain that seemed her inmost soul to find :—
That favoured strain was Surrey's raptured line, That fair and lovely form, the Lady Geraldine."
In 1543, when but fifteen, "The Fair Geraldine" married Sir Anthony Brown, K.G., then sixty years of age. After his death in 1548, she became the third wife of the Earl of Lincoln, who died in 1583 without issue by her. She died in March 1589, and was interred beside the Earl, her husband, under a fine monument in St. George's Chapel at Windsor. A fac-simile of a letter written by her, and a photograph from her portrait preserved in the Duke of Bedford's gallery (a copy of which is at Carton) are given in the
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