The Earl

20th, the lords consented and offered to be sworn that afternoon. To leave no room, however, for evasion, it was needful to postpone it till next morning; and the host being consecrated by Sir Richard's own chaplain, on the forenoon of the 21st, Kildare and the other lords took the oath of fealty and were absolved from excommunication.1

And so the earl was restored to favour and con

of Kildare. tinued as lord deputy. But two years had not elapsed before his conduct was again forced on the king's attention; for it was on the 28th July 1490 that the king wrote that letter summoning Kildare to England, which the earl answered more than ten months after by showing that the lords of Ireland could not dispense with his presence. The date, which I had fixed within the limits of five years, appears now to be precisely ascertained by reference to a document in the Patent Rolls, which shows that on the 29th July, 5 Henry VII., a pardon was granted to the earl for infringement of the statutes with regard to liveries and retinues, and that it was made conditional on his coming to England within ten months. Thus it appears that he allowed the prescribed time to expire and then wrote to excuse himself. He wrote, and fifteen great lords of the Irish council wrote to the same effect. Even the Italian Archbishop of Armagh, who had disclaimed taking part in the Simnel rebellion, on this occasion supported the lord deputy; while the Earl of Desmond and Piers Butler, Lord Roche and Lord Courcy, declared there would be no peace in Ireland if Kildare were removed. He remained, accordingly. That same year Perkin Warbeck made his first appearance and landed at Cork. His reception was not so triumphant as Simnel's had been,

Harris' Ilibernica, 59-77. 2 Sce Vol. i., 377.

3 Sec Appendix C.

but he himself declared two years later that he had received the countenance both of Kildare and Desmond. He did not, however, stay long in Ireland ; for Charles VIII., conceiving that he could use him as a tool against Henry, invited him to Paris, where Sir George Nevill and a number of disaffected Englishmen came to proffer him their services.

After this it was impossible to trifle longer with Kildare. He was removed from the office of lord deputy, and the Archbishop of Dublin appointed in his stead. It was perhaps to vindicate his conduct that he sent over some of his servants to England, when they were arrested and thrown into prison. He then wrote to the Earl of Ormond, the Queen's chamberlain, desiring to know the cause of the King's mistrust. Yet he was conscious that he had given some grounds, at least for suspicion. He had heard that he had been accused of favouring "the French lad," supported by the Earl of Desmond. Although he got the lords of Ireland to support him in his denial of this charge, he did not succeed in exculpating himself to the King's satisfaction. On the 30th of March 1493 a pardon was granted to him "at the request of many "spiritual and temporal Lords of Ireland," on condition of his sending his eldest son to England as a hostage. On the 10th of April pardons were also granted to the Earl of Desmond and Thomas de Desmond; on the 29th of May to Hubert Burk and Edward Ormond; and on the 22nd of June Kildare's pardon was renewed.

It seems to have been about this time that the The Geraldine and long feud between the Fitzgeralds and the Butlers Butler took its rise. The Earls of Ormond, indeed, had always factions. supported the House of Lancaster, while the Fitzgeralds were attached to that of York. But from being a political difference it now became a family quarrel, which Stanihurst speaks of as having bred trouble

in Ireland ever since the ninth year of Henry VII1 Just after the Earl of Kildare had been removed from the office of lord deputy, that of treasurer of Ireland was conferred upon James Ormond, who was shortly afterwards knighted. He was a bastard son of James fifth Earl of Ormond, and is characterized by Stanihurst as "a deep and a far-reaching man." He came over from England, marched with an armed force into Kilkenny, and compelled all the Butlers to submit to him as their chief. His father, indeed, was the eldest of three brothers, and the illegitimacy of his birth seems not to have been much regarded. Old Irish historians call him Earl of Ormond, and contemporary evidence confirms the accusation of Kildare, who wrote to the true earl that his base cousin had usurped the title. In fact he had greatly abused the authority committed to him by the king, and Kildare had already written of him in the following fashion: ----

66

2

'My right worshipful Cousin, I recommend me unto you. It is that your cousin James Ormond doth publish in all places “that he hath your interest and title in all your lands here, by reason whereof he hath brought into the counties of Kilkenny and Tipperary the O'Brenes with divers others "Irish enemies, and thereto destroyed the king's subjects, and spareth no churches ne religious places but hath spoiled "them. And because he groundeth him on the king's authority and yours likewise, I suffer him therein so to do, for "fear of the king's displease. And what your mind and "interest is, or shall be in this matter, if it like you to certify me thereof, I will do what I can for the reformation of "the same.

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"Given under my signet at Kilmainham, the 16th day of January.

But Sir James, hearing that his proceedings were not altogether liked, wrote to the new deputy that he had been accused of disloyalty and would immediately repair to Dublin to clear himself of the imputation. He marched thither accordingly with a strong body of men and encamped in the abbey of St. Thomas Court. Not only Kildare, but the citizens of Dublin were alarmed; "the street of the "Sheep" (now Ship street) was burned,' and a general riot ensued in which Ormond was compelled to take refuge in the chapter house beside St. Patrick's church. "Kildare pursuing Ormond to the chapter "house door undertook on his honour that he should " receive no villainy. Whereupon the recluse, craving "his lordship's hand to assure him his life, there " was a cleft in the chapter house door pierced at a trice, to the end both the earls should have shaken hands and be reconciled, But Ormond surmising that this drift was intended for some "further treachery, that if he would stretch out "his hand it had been percase chopped off, re"fused that proffer; until Kildare stretched in his hand to him, and so the door was opened, they "both embraced, the storm appeased, and all their " quarrels for that present rather discontinued than "ended."

dines out

The wheel had turned at length. Kildares and The GeralDesmonds, staunch adherents of the Yorkist cause, of favour. had borne the sway in Ireland, with little interruption, for nearly forty years. It was now the turn of their adversaries, and they who had supported the Geraldines could look for little favour. Baron Portlester was removed from the office of Chancellor. The archbishop of Dublin called a parliament, in

Annals of the Four Masters, * Holinshed.

327.

which a number of indictments found against him at the baron's instigation were quashed, and the baron himself was called upon to give an account of his stewardship. All grants of crown lands since the first year of Henry VI. were resumed. Shortly afterwards, the archbishop was replaced as deputy by Viscount Gormanston, and went to England to inform the King of the state of Ireland. Kildare soon followed him, that he might justify himself against his accusers, and so far does he seem to have satisfied the King that he was sent back next year along with Sir Edward Poynings.

On the whole it may be doubted whether Kildare was the most factious of the Irish lords. Born to a rude and somewhat absolute authority, he doubtless had much to answer for, in the way of violence and tyranny. Attached to the dethroned House of York, he intrigued in their favour. But his visit to England, and interviews with Henry appear to have confirmed his loyalty for ever after, and the last time Warbeck landed in Ireland, he narrowly escaped being taken prisoner by Kildare. Nor was he, as a partizan, inimical to the Ormonds generally; he gave Piers Butler his daughter in marriage, and corresponded with the Earl of Ormond, in terms which betoken confidence. But with Sir James Ormond he seems to have been quite unable to agree; and this was the case with many besides Kildare. So turbulent, indeed, was this spurious scion of the Butlers, that a few years later he was slain by one of his own kin; and, if in this we may trust his adversary's testimony (professedly vouched for at the time by documents), it would seem that just when Kildare grew loyal Ormond became seditious; for he twice refused obedience to a summons from the crown, and was instrumental in bringing Warbeck to Ireland in 1497.