Kildare rebellion

Kildare rebellion (1534–5). There are two views of the causes of this outbreak. Brendan Bradshaw argues that it was a reaction to deliberate Tudor policies of centralization, directed against over‐mighty subjects and encouraged by local humanist reformers. S. G. Ellis offers a more contingent explanation, amounting to Kildare miscalculation in an unstable situation. Surrey's experiment and the chopping and changing of governors had dented the confidence of the 9th earl of Kildare, Gearóid Óg. Thomas Cromwell's appointments in Ireland during Kildare's final deputyship caused further resentment. The announcement of his replacement by Skeffington in 1533 was not a deliberate challenge, because he was the only Englishman willing to serve in Ireland. Furthermore Cromwell had no radical administrative overhaul in mind, because Skeffington's Ordinances for the Government of Ireland were a mish‐mash of previously issued instructions.

It was a message from Gearóid Óg rather than false rumours of his execution that resulted in the stage‐managed resignation and denunciation of royal policies before the Irish privy council of his son Lord Offaly, ‘Silken Thomas’, on 11 June 1534. This demonstration of Geraldine frustration was intended to force negotiations, but with the crown pushing through the Reformation in England such defiance had to be taken seriously and so Kildare was sent to the Tower. On 27 July Offaly's men murdered Archbishop John Alen and began a siege of Dublin Castle. Silken Thomas proclaimed a Catholic crusade, made contacts with English and Welsh Catholics, and requested support from the pope and Emperor Charles V. Skeffington finally arrived with an army of 2,300 in October. The ‘pardon of Maynooth’ on 25 March 1535 saw effective resistance collapse. With no imperial aid forthcoming, Thomas surrendered on 25 August to Lord Leonard Grey on promise of his life. He was sent to London where in February 1537 he was executed with five of his uncles. Although the rebellion cost £23,000 to suppress, remarkable leniency was shown, with only 75 executions. With Kildare lands confiscated and the large Geraldine affinity leaderless, the crown perforce embarked on radical administrative reform which entailed the more expensive alternative of ruling directly with an English governor and garrison.

Bibliography

Bradshaw, Brendan , The Irish Constitutional Revolution of the Sixteenth Century (1979);
Ellis, S. G. , Tudor Ireland (1985)

Hiram Morgan