dominant that his opponents sought to counterbalance it, and petitioned the king with that object in 1489. Having summoned Kildare and all his great lords to London, he received them graciously, expostulated with them, and formed his own judgment, which was favourable to Kildare. Before dismissing them he received them at a banquet, at which he caused Simnel to attend upon them as butler. Kildare returned to his government with increased power to administer the affairs of the kingdom with his wonted vigour. In 1493 he again fell under the suspicion of his sovereign, to whom it was reported that he was in correspondence with Perkin Warbeck. Kildare was displaced, and the archbishop of Dublin appointed deputy. Whatever might be the private-wishes of Kildare, he did not openly declare for Warbeck, but he went to London to plead his cause with the king. He was received ungraciously, and told that Sir Edward Poynings was appointed the new deputy, and desired to return to Ireland. Soon after unfortunately some of the Geraldines had risen in rebellion, and Poynings availed himself of the occasion to pass a bill of attainder against the earl as a traitor, and he was arrested and sent to London, where he was imprisoned in the Tower for two years. The earl was restored to his honours and estates, and appointed lord-deputy in August, 1496. On his return to Ireland he repaid the king's favour by his devoted loyalty, and his great services both as a soldier and a statesman, and when Warbeck landed at Cork in 1497, Kildare and Desmond successfully opposed him and were near taking him prisoner. Thenceforward, the life of the earl was a succession of services to his sovereign, both in the field and in the council; nor was he without ample rewards, amongst which was the honour of the garter bestowed on him in 1505 after his signal defeat of Knockdoe at the "Hill of the Axes." He was reappointed lord-justice in 1509, on the accession of Henry VIII., and being appointed lord-deputy the year following, he undertook an expedition into Munster, where he encountered the Desmonds and O'Briens. Marching against O'Carrol's castle in the King's county, he was wounded while watering his horse in the river Greese, and reaching Kildare he died on the 3rd September, 1513, and was interred in Christ Church, Dublin. He was the most efficient and useful governor that Ireland had known up to his time. If he had great personal ambition, he had a greater love of country. The Irish annalists describe him as "a knight in valour, and princely and religious in his word and judgment." Holinshed says he was "a mightie man of stature, full of honour and courage . . . . . in government milde, to his enemies sterne. He was open and playne, hardly able to rule himself when he was moved; in anger not so sharp as short, being easily displeased and sooner appeased." He was succeeded by his son—
Gerald, ninth earl, born in 1487. In 1496 he was detained in England as a hostage for his father's fidelity. Being permitted to return to Ireland in 1503, he was the following year appointed lord high-treasurer of Ireland, and signalized himself at the battle of the "Hill of the Axes." He succeeded his father as lord-justice, and was appointed lord-deputy by Henry VIII. Like his father, while he governed the Pale for the king, he did not forget that he was an Irish chief outside of it, and we accordingly find him taking part in the feuds which distracted the island. Accused of maladministration by his enemies in England, he went to London; and though he was acquitted of the charges, it was felt that there were great objections to committing the administration of the country to any Irish noble, and in 1520 Surrey, lord high-admiral of England, was sent to Ireland as lord-lieutenant. Nevertheless Gerald accompanied the king the same year to France, and distinguished himself by his bearing at the Field of the Cloth of Gold. Kildare returned to Ireland in January, 1523. Meantime Surrey had been recalled, and Ormond appointed deputy. The ancient enmity between these two chiefs soon broke out anew. Complaints and counter-complaints were forwarded by each to the king, who issued a commission of inquiry in Ireland, which resulted in the triumph of Kildare, who was appointed deputy in the place of his rival on the 4th of August, 1524. Two years afterwards Kildare was impeached for disobeying the king's commands in not taking the earl of Desmond, for contracting alliances with Irish enemies, for causing "certain good subjects to be hanged for no other reason than that they were friends or favourites to the family of the Butlers." When brought before the council, Wolsey made a violent speech against him, whom he answered with great spirit; at which, says Holinshed, "the cardinal rose in a fume from the counsayle table and commytted the earle till more direct probations came out of Irelande." Wolsey contrived to obtain a sentence of death against the earl, which would have been carried into execution but for the friendly interference of the lieutenant of the Tower. Kildare was after a time liberated upon giving security to appear when called upon, and in August, 1530, returned to Ireland with Lord-deputy Skeffington. Ere long a feud broke out between Kildare and Skeffington, who joined himself to the Ormond party, and in 1532 Kildare went to London and prevailed on the king to supersede Skeffington in his favour. Kildare on his return did not use his power with moderation, removing from place all whom he considered adverse to him. The result was that strong complaints against his government were transmitted to the king, and Kildare was once again summoned to London. Kildare, after many delays, finally committed the government to his son Thomas in council at Drogheda, in February, 1534, and embarked for England. When examined before the council, the hesitation of his speech—the effect of a wound—was construed as a consciousness of guilt, and he was committed to the Tower. A report reached Dublin that he was beheaded, whereupon Thomas resigned his office and rose in rebellion against the English.—(See Fitzgerald, Thomas, Lord.) The news of this event affected the earl so deeply that he died of grief on the 12th of December, 1534, and was buried in St. Peter's church in the Tower. He was a man of great ability, prudence, and valour, "nothing inferior to hys father in martiall prowesse," and as much loved by his friends as he was feared by his enemies.
Thomas, tenth earl. See Fitzgerald, Thomas, Lord.
Gerald, eleventh earl, and son of the ninth earl, was born on the 25th of February, 1525. After the execution and attainder of his half-brother Thomas, he was kept in concealment in March, 1540, and conveyed to St. Malo, where he was hospitably received by the governor, M. de Chateaubriand. A month after he was brought to Paris by order of Francis I., and placed with the young dauphin, afterwards Henry II. As soon as his place of retreat was known. Sir John Wallop, the English ambassador at Paris, demanded that the earl should be given up to him in the name of his sovereign. Francis for a time evaded, and at length sent him privately to Flanders; thence he was sent to Brussels, but being there claimed on behalf of the king of England, the Emperor Charles V. despatched him to the bishop of Liege, six months after which he reached Italy, and was placed under the protection of his illustrious kinsman. Cardinal Reginald Pole. At length in safety and with ample means settled on him, he sojourned successively in Rome, and other Italian cities, and received the education that befitted his high rank, so that he became a good scholar and an accomplished gentleman. When eighteen years of age he proceeded to Naples, and thence to Malta, in company with some knights of St. John, and served gallantly with that order on the coast of Barbary against the Turks and Moors. After this he passed into the service of Cosmo de Medici, duke of Florence, with whom he remained three years as master of the horse. Meantime the noble scion of the great house of Kildare was an object of anxiety, expectation, and fear, both to friends and foes. The vigilance of the English government still pursued him; and a report in 1544 that he was about to invade Ireland with the aid of the king of France, caused great alarm. At length the death of Henry VIII. released him from his apprehensions. He returned to London, where his beauty and accomplishments won the admiration of all, and the heart of one, Mabel the daughter of Sir Anthony Brown, master of the horse to Edward VI. Their marriage and the influence of Anthony procured him the favour of his sovereign and the restoration of his estates on the 25th of April, 1552. Nor was he less fortunate with Mary, who, on the 1st of May, 1554, restored him his ancestral titles of Kildare and Offaly (though the attainder was not reversed till 1569). Returning to his native land, he was received with great rejoicing, and he is thenceforth to be found occupying the position due to his illustrious birth, and taking an active part in the various measures of the English government for the pacification of the country. Nevertheless, like so many of his ancestors, he fell under the suspicion of the English government of conspiring to seize the lord-deputy and the castle in conjunction with the Leinster rebels. In consequence he and his son Henry, Lord Offaly, were sent to London; but after a careful
