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VIII. The Vindication of the Earl of Kildare from Treason, 1496

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2016

G. O. Sayles
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Extract

It may perhaps be useful for me to express at the outset my belief that the documents which explain the actions of the eighth earl of Kildare, who served either as justiciar or as deputy lieutenant of Ireland during the years 1477–92 and 1496–1513, still await a scientific and objective examination : the interpretation of them has so far been too much the result of an attitude of parti pris, and it has made the earl&s relations with the English government unintelligible. This note is, however, intended to do no more than resolve some perplexities that have gathered round his attainder in the Irish parliament in 1495 at tne instigation of Sir Edward Poynings, the then deputy.

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Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 7 , Issue 25 , March 1950 , pp. 39 - 47
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 1950

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References

1 Curtis, , Med. Ire. (1923), pp. 385&412 Google Scholar; D. Bryan, The Great Earl of Kildare (1933), passim.

2 The facts are conveniently assembled in Agnes Conway, Henry VII's relations with Scotland and Ireland, 1485—98, pp. 58–62 Google Scholar

3 Of. the opposite opinion in Bryan, op. cit., p. 185 : ‘ one is constrained to believe that [Kildare] detested the whole design and hoped, and probably worked, for its failure ’

4 This is the date from which he was to forfeit his estates (Conway, op. cit., p. 217).

5 Conway, op. cit., pp. 216–7.

6 See the subjoined document: below, pp. 45–6.

7 State Papers, Henry VIII, vol. ii, part iii, p. 2 : ‘State of Ireland, and plan for its reformation’

8 The Statement in Bryan, op. cit., p. 186, that the Information was conveyed to Poynings by Sir James Ormond seems to be based on Sir James Ware, ‘Annals of Ireland during the reign of Henry VII ’ in Antiquities and history of Ireland (1705), p. 27 f., but Ware's obiter dictum makes no reference to Ormond and speaks only of ‘the earl's adversaries ’ We must not jump to conclusions because the Butlers and the Fitzgeralds were ancient enemies and argue from the general to the particular.

9 For a detailed discussion of this point, see H. G. Richardson and G. O. Sayles, The Irish parliament in the middle ages (in the press).

10 Bryan, op. cit., pp. 186, 194; Conway, op. cit., pp. 79, 80, 82.

11 Rotuli parliamentorum, vi. 481–2; Statutes of the realm, ii. 612–3 (11 Henry VII, c. 44).

12 Curtis, op. cit., p. 404; Bryan, op. cit., p. 142.

13 Of. the comment of Sir James Ormond in a letter written on 20 February 1495 : ‘ the deputy is as good a man as I know ‘ (Conway, op. cit., p. 151).

14 Ware had probably seen the archiepiscopal registers which contain a copy of these documents : hence his brief comment that ‘ O’Hanlon, intr two years after sworn, did declare the earl to be free of that wickedness (op. cit., p. 27 f).

15 Bryan, op. cit., p. 263.

16 Reeves Transcripts, Armagh, vol. i, fos. 79–83; Reeves Transcripts, Trinity College, Dublin, vol. i, fos. 88–94. I would express my gratitude to the librarian of Trinity College, Dublin, and the governors of the Armagh Public Library for their kindness in giving me access to those documents.

17 3 June 1496.

18 Richardstown, co. Louth.

19 Stabannon, co. Louth.

20 Gernonstown, co. Louth.

21 MS sic.