crown lands; and 2d, That he had alliance and correspondence with divers of the Irish, enemies to the state.”*

Though the earl was acquitted of the express charges, when in 1519 he was summoned over to England, yet the work of enmity was not the less effective; for by means of the exposure of the policy by which Ireland was governed, and the confused state of its interests, it was made plainly apparent to the English council that there were great objections to the administration of any Irish baron. It was, therefore, now resolved to send over Thomas, lord Surrey, lord high admiral of England, with a sufficient armed force to subdue and awe the insurgent chiefs.

During his stay in England, the earl married the lady Elizabeth Gray, daughter to the marquis of Dorset. This match secured him a powerful influence at court, and had long the effect of counteracting the hostility of his enemies. He was directly taken into the king's favour and accompanied him into France, where he was present at the celebrated field of the cloth of gold, held between the French and English kings in the same year.

To pursue the remainder of his political course, without a violent interruption to the history of the country, we must now state some particulars concerning the administration of lord Surrey. He was the son of the first duke of Norfolk, whom he afterwards succeeded as second duke. He came to Ireland on the 23d of May, 1520, with an army of a thousand men, and a lifeguard of one hundred. His first contest was with Con O'Niall. O'Niall had probably a natural sense of hostility towards the successor of his kinsman, Kildare, and acted with the design to make him uneasy in his seat, and by raising as much disturbance as he could, help to work out the proof of the useful proposition, that none but the earl of Kildare could preserve the peace of the country. It seems to have been his hope to take the new governor by surprise; but the alertness, and military promptness of Surrey prevented him, and he felt it necessary to retreat into Ulster. His conduct is traced to the suggestion of Kildare, and the correspondence of this earl's enemies is filled with such complaints. It is indeed evident, that this was the interest of the earl at the time, and there is sufficient proof that he thought so himself. In common with the other great lords of the pale, he derived much of his power, and all his political weight from the cultivation of alliances of this nature. The English of the pale were protected, governed, and oppressed, by means of a power which, while it was wielded by their own lords, was yet thoroughly Irish in its composition. They were, consequently, become unwarlike in their habits, and unprovided with proper arms. Their great barons, holding, in fact, the place and power of great Irish chiefs, and regarded in this light by the natives, contrived to avail themselves of the double advantages of this twofold position. Their power and possessions had a foundation, in a great measure, independent of the English interest. The armies they led, like those they opposed, were tumultuary; they were sufficient to collect the plunder of a district, and to neutralize hostilities for the moment, and they sought no more.

• Lodge.

In the confusion thus preserved, lay the secret of their strength: the individual was above the law. An English force adequate for the purpose, and adequately maintained, would quickly end this state of turbulent confusion and arbitrary licence. Thus, while the prospect of such an interference could not fail to be welcomed with delight by the large class which was altogether dependent on tranquil industry, and subject to the varied eddies of this whirlpool of perpetual movement, it could not be regarded with any complacency by the earl of Kildare. It may therefore be admitted, on the ground of such documentary or inferential proofs as have been advanced by historians, that he adopted, at once, the obvious, yet rash and dangerous course of exciting hostility against Surrey's government. Accordingly, this

nobleman soon found sufficient indications of this influence. His time and resources were lamentably wasted in enterprises which had no important result. At considerable cost, and frequent danger of his life, he traversed hostile provinces, and pursued the insurgent chief to his tower; but a submission and an empty pledge ended the affair, until it next became the marauder's convenience or pleasure to ride out on a party of plunder. The king had exhausted his father's accumulated hoards, on the gorgeous tinsel of the fields of Ardres, and wrote to his lieutenant in Ireland, that "Considering the scantitie and dearthe of vitailles in those parties, the horsemen cannot conveniently live upon their wages at the said rate, [the allowance of government for their support,] therefore be he contented that ye suffer them to take cune and livery, after the ancient accustumable manner there used, &c."* Such was the oppressive, unpopular, and illegal resource on which the government was thrown. From the same document it appears, that the complaints against Kildare had formed the chief substance of the representations of the Irish government. The king acknowledging the complaint, tells the lord lieutenant and council, that, "as touching the sedicious practisis, conspiracies, and subtle driftes of the erle of Kildare, his servantes, aiders, and assisters, we have committed the examinacion and trial of that matier to the moost Reverend Fader in God, our right entierly beloved Counsaillour, Chancellour, Cardinal and Archbishop of Yorke, &c., &c."t

The whole interval of Surrey's administration was a succession of perplexing alarms, and fatiguing, and often dangerous marches, in which the object to be attained was by no means adequate to the fatigue and danger. In one of his expeditions, lord Surrey had the vizor struck off from his helmet by a shot fired from a thick wood as he passed; and he was perhaps soon anxious to escape from a warfare in which fatigue and danger were to be thus endured without fame or honourable success. The greatest success was to bring the insurgents to the encounter; dangerous in the lurking places, into which they seemed to melt away at the approach of an English force; if they were caught in the field, it was but the slaughter of a barbarous rabble, and had no consequence. The war was one of depredation and burning, and not of arms. The chiefs had comparatively little to lose; hostilities began on their side with a knowledge of the consequences,

* Letter from Henry VIII.-State Papers.

+ State Papers.

and a sufficient preparation to save themselves from them. They could drive away their cattle at the approach of the enemy; and, when any serious danger appeared, it was time enough to propose peace, swear allegiance, and observe the engagement so long as was convenient. Many of these chiefs excused their hostilities by pleading the influence of Kildare; and there is much reason to suspect, that the excuse was not without better proofs than mere assertions. A letter from Kildare to a chief of the name of O'Carrol, is quoted by Leland, as having been given to Surrey in proof of this earl's practices. It does not, however, bear the degree of evidence which the historian's statement seems to imply. The letter was not itself forthcoming when demanded by Surrey; but after much pressing and urgent persuasion, the contents of the letter were recollected and sworn to by Donogh O'Carrol. The following is the form of this person's deposition:-" He [Donogh O'Carrol] saith that in Easter week last past, the abbot of Monastricow, called Heke, brought a letter to O'Carrol, out of England, on the behalf of the earl of Kildare, wherein was written these words: There is no Irishman in Ireland I am better contented with than you; and whenever I come into Ireland I shall do you good for any thing that ye shall do for me; and any displeasure that I have done to you, I shall make you amends therefor. Desiring you to keep good peace to Englishmen, till an English deputie come there; and when any English deputy shall come thither, do your best to make war upon Englishmen there, except such as be towards me, whom ye know well yourself.'"*

Surrey's representations, founded mainly on such evidence, had the effect of prepossessing the English monarch and his minister against Kildare; and when this lord lieutenant was recalled, after two years' continuance in the country, he was commanded to commit the administration to the earl of Ormonde, the rival and enemy of Kildare. Surrey's government had been productive of much good; for though he had not been enabled to remedy the vicious state of the country's laws and customs, or to put a stop to the numerous abuses which depressed and retarded the prosperity of the pale, still the mere abstinence from wrong, and the cessation of partiality, oppression, and misgovernment in the seat of administration, were felt as great and rare blessings, which shed lustre on his government, and caused regret at his departure.

The elevation of an inveterate enemy to a position which empowered him to encroach on his rights, and endanger his power, made Kildare's presence in Ireland necessary. Ormonde had the will, and many pretexts for the persecution of the Geraldine faction; and there were even territorial questions liable to be raised between these powerful earls, which it would not be well to leave undefended. Kildare returned; his influence was increased by the unpopularity of his rival. The government of Pierce earl of Ormonde was unpopular, and Kildare soon found that he might, with safety, avow his enmity. At first, he had evidently resolved to preserve appearances. His character had been shaken by the complaints of Surrey, but Ormonde was himself

State Papers, Vol. ii. Part III. p. 45.

involved in the whispers of faction, and liable to be denounced by his victims or his enemies. Having begun, therefore, by efforts to support the deputy, Kildare soon began to enter on the more congenial course of factious underworking, so familiar to the time.

The dissensions between the earls were brought to an issue by an accidental circumstance. James Fitz-Gerald, a relation and friend of Kildare, meeting a favourite servant of Ormonde's on his way to Kilkenny, slew him. The earl of Ormonde, in his anger, transmitted a complaint to the English court, which was retaliated by the complaints and accusations of Kildare. Commissioners were appointed to try the merits of the allegations on both sides in Ireland. Here Kildare had, however, a twofold advantage; his faction in Ireland, and his wife's powerful relations in England, combined to turn the scale of judgment. By the first, the selection of the commissioners was influenced; and by the second, if necessary, the representations and testimonies must have been affected. The commission decided for him. His triumph was completed by the recall of his adversary, in whose place he was appointed as lord deputy. The whole of this transaction was evidently preconcerted in England; the commission was managed by the marquis of Dorset, and the commissioners, Sir Ralph Egerton, Sir Andrew Fitz-Herbert, and James Denton, dean of Litchfield, were appointed, and their instructions provided for the event by directing that Kildare, on his acquittal, should be named deputy in place of his accuser. This view is confirmed by the fact, that the indenture between the king and the earl bears date prior to this transaction.*

The triumph of Kildare was swelled by the joy of his numerous and powerful faction; but circumstances soon arose which involved him in trouble and danger. The earl of Desmond, whose remote position, rather than any inferiority of power, kept him apart from the main course of Irish affairs, had, it is stated by all the old historians, entered into a treasonable correspondence with the king of France, who was at the time at war with Henry; but peace being made between the kings, this correspondence was thus exposed. Kildare was ordered to march into Munster, and to apprehend Desmond. This was, however, a command opposed to all Kildare's principles of action and politics. Desmond was his kinsman, his ally, next to himself too, the most powerful and popular chief in Ireland. Formal obedience could not be avoided; he marched against Desmond, but there was a secret understanding between these great chiefs, and nothing was done in earnest. Kildare turned on his march to assist his kinsman O'Niall, against O'Donel. He also attacked the Birnes to serve Desmond. A lettter of his to Desmond had been intercepted by his sister, the wife of Ormonde, and is said to have been used against him.† The recent publication of the state papers of this reign by government, has placed before us a more detailed and expanded view of these transactions than we can allow ourselves to enter upon, or than the interest of the period would justify. The principal charges occupy mainly

* Cox.

+ This is verified by Kildare's own admission. See State Papers, Vol. III. Part ii. p. 121.

the several representations on either side; forming alliances with the king's enemies, seizing on the king's land, or withholding his rents and subsidies. These statements were such as to have inevitably prejudiced both parties, and it is probable that the king and English council were fully impressed with a conviction which had so often before been the inference from similar brawls, that the country should be governed by an English governor only. Kildare's account of the letter represents it as written and intercepted long previous to the recent transactions with Desmond. He asserts that it had been seized by his own sister, Ormonde's wife, on the occasion of his messenger, a Fitz-Gerald, having slept at her house; that lord Ormonde had used it against him on the commission, when the commissioners had set it aside as proceeding "of no evil intent." This account may be the truth, but it is also very likely that the letter had a distinct bearing which cast an unfavourable light on the recent accusation. The earl was recalled to answer the charges against him. From the mass of letters and articles of charge against Ormonde, we will extract a portion of one short letter, less formal and more characteristic than the long documents which precede it.

“Kildare to Henry VIII.*

"In my most humble maner beseching your grace not to regard such untrue surmises of myne adversaries, till the truth bee tryed; trusting, and knowing right well, that I never did bethought any thing whereby I should deserve your moost drad displeasure, where unto I was not only bound by my duty of allegiance, but also for that in my youth I was brought up in your service, and when I came to discretion, it pleased you to make me your tresurer, and consequently [subsequently] your deputie, and gave me landis to the yearely value of 100 markes. My first wife [Elizabeth Zouch] was your poor kinswoman; and my wife now [Lady Elizabeth Gray] in like maner. And in all my troubles before this, by untrue surmises against me, ye were good and gracious unto me, which ought enough suffice to bind, to owe unto your grace, my true and faithful service. And though there were no such cause, yet could I find in my heart to serve your grace before all the princes in the world, as well for the great nobleness, valiant prowess and equity, which I ever noted in your most noble person, as also for the vertuous qualities wherein ye excell all other princes. And besides that, I do know right well, if I did the contrary, it shulde bee the distruccion of me and my sequel for ever. As knoweth Almighty God, who ever have you in his tender tuicion. From my manor of Maynoth, the 17th daye of August [1525]."

Kildare was called to stand his trial in the following year (1526), and had a narrow escape. The articles of his impeachment were, that 1st, He had disobeyed the king's command by not taking the earl of Desmond. 2d, That he had contracted alliances with Irish enemies. 3d, That he had caused certain good subjects to be hanged, for no other reason than they were friends or favourites to the family of the

* State Papers, Vol. iii. p. 125.