One of the famous names of Medieval Ireland was that of Garret MoreFitzgerald of Kildare.This great earl was so popular with the people of his holdingthat he came close to being crowned a king of Ireland over Henry Tudor.Henry VIII declared that 'since all Ireland cannot rule this man,this man must rule all Ireland' and on this note on meeting GarretMore Henry restored him as Deputy and gave him to wife his owncousin, Elizabeth St John.
This Earl of Kildare the 8th was the son of Thomas had been takento Florence Italy as a child for his protection and was raised there.He was Lord Deputy from 1477 till he died in 1513. During this timehe continued his familys policy of marrage alliances. His sisterEleanor married Conn son of Henry the ONeill in 1480 in defiance ofthe Statutes of Kilkenny which forbad under penalty of land forfitureany intermarriage between Norman[old english] or English and NativeIrish persons the children of this alliance were declared of freeestate by an act of Parliament.One of the sons of Conn More son of Henry the ONeill was called ConnBacach because he had a limp or lameness. He inheritied the ONeill in 1519 and died in 1559, and was the nefew of Garret More Fitzgerald ofKildare.He was also the father of the ill fated Mathew Baron of DungannonUnder Elizabeth 1, father of Brian and Hugh{Aeda}. this Mathew waskilled by the forces of Shane ONeill in his fight with the McDonnell or McDonaldscots
The child Hugh was rescued by the Queens forces and taken to Londonwhere he was raised for some years in the royal custody. This Hughbecame ONeill himself on the Death of Turlock Leinech who wasinagurated the ONeill on the death of Shane who was fostered by theDonnellys after he was roundly defeated by the ODonnell at SwillyFarasetmore in 1567.
He [Shane] being a compete egotist threw himslef on the mercy of thethe scot Mac Donnells whose leader he had killed in the fight justbefore along with his brother Mathew who was killed during thisfrey*,or as a sideline to it. Shane was thereupon induced to getdrunk with them and in an altercation over some difference he wasslain by these scots warriors in vengance for the loss of theirleader. One of the Donnellys called Dudley died with him.
Turloch Leinech ONeill was inagurated in 1568 and was married toAgnus Campbell of Argyll who had at her command 2000 gallowglasses asa part of her dowry.This Turloch ruled peacefully from Strabane tillhe died in 1587 when the ONeill passed to the remaining ONeilldescendant Hugh ONeill Earl of Tyrone who became in Irish eyes theGreat ONeill who fought the battle of the Yellow Ford[ ath buide] in1598 and the finaly battle of Kinsale on Chrismas Eve in 1601.
In former Years thou the family of Garret More who had five daughtersbuilt up a sucessful alliance through marriage with the great housesof the Gael and the Gall. Ulick Burke of Clanricard, Donal Mc CarthyReigh, Mulrony O Carroll of Ely and Offlay,The Lord of Slane, andMargaret to Piers Butler Lord of Ormand deputy and head of thePolestown Butlers.
Garret More secured the successsion of the ONeill or the OKelly Heliked and distroying with his artilery the castles of hisopponents.In 1504 Garret More was opposed by his son -in-law UlickBurke who not only took over the town of Galway for himself butwas abusive to Garret's daughter.
A great battle was finally ajoined where Kildare summoned to him O DONNELL, O NEILL, O KELLY, THE MAYO BURKES, the English of the PALEand of Obrien 's English of CLANRICARD as well as the CHIEFS OFORMOND and CONNACT
This army mustered could have conquered THE PALE IN 24 HOURS had heso chosen to claim the CROWN of IRELAND.The battle was fought on Aug 19 1504 ' and I was first married onAUG 19 1954 .
Ten thousand men fought at the at the hill of Cnoc Taugh near GalwayThese armies were equiped with bows, bills,, spears and swords,horsemen, and axemen the battle was so fierce that that 1800gallowglasses of Clanricard where slain outright only one battalionof 10 escaped alive.This famous victory gave Kildare the garter from the king Henry 8He entered Galway in glory. He did not although pose himself toa separate kingship over Ireland but although suspected of being asecret yorkist of the white rose favored by all the Irish nobles herealised that a new day of the Tudors had come .With the failure ofthe yorkist hope and he did not ignore the news from scotland thatJames had brought the lordship of the ilses to rest with the hangingof John Mac Donnell and his three sons.
In 1505 Hugh Oge O Donnell became after his father Lord ofTyrconnell, Sligo, Fernmanagh and Leitrim. He had allied with Kildarefor over 40 years againt the Clanricard and was a leader in a desireto unite Scotland and Ireland against England with a Yorkistrestoration as was Edward IV.O Donnell was a chief who travled and spoke other languages. Hevisited Rome in 1510 and was knighted by the King in London. ODonnell was in communication with James IV of Scotland regardinguniting the two kingdoms against Henry but before that couldmaterialise the Great Earl Garret More Fitzgersald of Kildare wasdead.He died in a petty skirmish with the OMores of Leix in trying one ofthe kings new guns on them one of them returned fire. He died on Sept 3 1513 and 6 days later the King of Scots James IV died at Floodenwith his entire calvary. O Donnell wrote to the King Henry to obsolvehimself of any suspition.
"Garrett More came nearer to being the accepted kind of Irleand thanany man since the Conquest, and his popularity lasted for the fortyyears of his rule. He is discribed as a might man of stature, full ofhonor and courage, open and plain, hardly able to rule himself whenhe was moved to anger, easily displeased and soon appeased, ofthe English well beloved, a good justicar, a suppresser of rebels anda warrior incomparable.. Under him though the union of the two raceswas not operated, there was a growing sense of a new nationality,and Gaelic chiefs and Old English lords allied and intermarriedopenly.
The influence of the Renaissance was seen in Ireland in thefounding of Kilkenny school by Piers Butler in a spendid college atMaynooth, built by the great Earl, and the fine library both ofmanuscrips and books that the Earl and his son had in MaynoothCastle. And if Ireland was dominatd by a numerous and powerfularistocracy without a king, at least a civilization under Methuen & CoLtd.[ London]
Garrett Oge suceeded his father and was a good administrtor aswell. Henry was content to let him rule as Deputy but there wasintrige afoot from England from Henrys new minister Wolsey. In 1515Earl Thomas Butler of Ormand died and his right went to his grandsonSir Thomas Boylyn who was the father of Anne Boylyn who subsequntlybecame the favorite of Henry 8 and the mother of the famous queenElizabeth I.
Many new rents and cesses where placed on the Irish and the Butlersintriues against Kildare for their own powers and favors from thekingAt last in 1520 Henry appointed an English noblemen Thomas Earl ofSurrey son of the Duke of Norfolk a yorkist as Lord Leiutenant ofIreland who arrived with an army of 1,000 men. Some of the IrishChiefs came in to Surrey amongh them Hugh Oge O Donnell and ConnBacach who was now the ONeill, Cormac McCarthy lord of Carbery.Henry adopted the policy of surrender and regrant for these lordssaying' that though we are above the laws we will take nothing thatbelongs to them'The Boylyns and the Butlers were allied againt the Kildare for over12 years.Henry made the great break with Rome over his desire to marry AnneBoylyn from 1529 -1536.Thomas Cromwell replaced the chief ministry ofWolsey.Under him the fall of the Kildare house was achieved.In February 1534 Garret Oge was summoned to London and lodged in theTower.He appointed his son Thomas known as Silken Thomas because of thegarments he chose for himself and his bodygaurd.
The Butlers spead the rumor that the Earl was dead in the Tower andon June 11 Silken Thomas surrendered the sword of State and renouncedHenry and his deputyship. He was around 21 years of age.He retired to his castle at Maynooth and threw himself into the handsof the Pope and the Emperor who he declared Henry had forfeitedIreland by his excomunication and heresy.However this enraged Henry and he sent in Sir William Skeffingtonwith the largest army for some time seen in Ireland. Thomas LordOffaly was declared a traitor and the curse of the church waspublished.This curse was shown to the old Earl Garret Oge ,who than died ofdispair in the Tower. in December of 1534.Skeffington captured Maynooth in March of 1535 after a wek seige allwarders executed as an 'example'In Aug Silken Thomas surrendered unconditionally and was sent to theTower.He was executed at Tyburn in February 1535 along with 5 of hisuncles.There was no parliamentary protection for or house of peersfor the Irish who could be held indefinatly in the tower for years inmysery and without trial to be executed at will by the whim of themonarch.This heralded the end of the house of Kildare. One geraldine was leftthe young 10 year old brother of Thomas who was rescued by his auntLady Eleanor widow of MacCarthy of Carbery who married Manus OODonnell to unify the north with the south.This child was later taken out of Donegal and into the continet ofEurope.
With the fall of this house and the establishement of the GeraldineLeague on behalf of the young brother of Thomas, the kingreesablished under Lord Gray the attaintment of the gerladinesrepresenting some 9 counties. Black rents were abolshed to the Irishcheiftanry ,intermarriage and fostering was forbidden with the Irish,keeping of Irish minstrels rymers and bards was forbidden among theEnglish ,Irish dress was forbidden among the Irish and English andEnglish language was to be used.In 1541 both Con Bacach the ONeill and ODonnell submitted to thesubmit and regrant programs of Henry who was than the Earl of Ulsterand Lord of Leix and Connact He now held through the attainted landsof Kildare and Desmond the lordship of Carlow Wexford and most ofLeinsterThe Pope moved to establish Jesuits in Ireland in 1541 to holdIreland at all costs for the Faith now that it ws established Henrywould not be brought back into the Faith but would continue with theReformation and his own etablished Royal Church.
So passed an era of history into the beginings of the Eliabethan erathe great conquests of the New World by both Spain England and Francewith which we are all familiar.
*there is some discrepancy in the death of mathew that he was killed by Turlock Leinech ONeill during shanes visit to the Court of Elizabeth sas she detained his returna ndTurlock felt that by eliminating mathew he would become the Oneill
SONA LA FEILE PADRAIC[ Happy Day geneous Patrick}
JudiDonnelly
Copyright August 1 2007
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