His second wife, Elizabeth St. John, was Henry VII’s
first cousin, and his son and heir, Lord Gerald, married
Elizabeth Zouche, also the king’s relative. Yet royal
favor also recognized the earl’s organizational and mil-
itary abilities. As deputy, Kildare built up a standing
force of three hundred kerne, galloglass, and horse-
men, and he reorganized the English Pale’s southern
defenses around his principal castles: Maynooth,
Rathangan, Portlester, Lea, Kildare, Athy, Kilkea,
Castledermot, Rathvilly, and Powerscourt. Marcher
defense was also strengthened by matching his
numerous childrenone son and six daughters with
his first wife, Alison FitzEustace, daughter of Lord
Portlester; seven sons with his second wifewith
prominent English and Gaelic families. Almost all
the Gaelic lords whose lands bordered the Pale also
paid the earl “black rents.” From a Gaelic perspective
his dealings with the border chieftaincies differed
little from relations between a Gaelic overlord and
his vassal chiefs. Kildare’s court included a Gaelic
entourage, and he spoke and wrote in Gaelic as occa-
sion demanded.
Although admired by historians of the Irish Free
State era as a champion of home rule and exemplar
of a growing Anglo-Gaelic cultural rapprochement,
Kildare was no “Anglo-Irish separatist.” Certainly, he
exploited the monarchy’s renewed weakness after
Edward IV’s death, exacting better terms from Richard
III and intruding as chancellor his brother, Thomas,
against the king’s wishes. Yet the corollary was his
loyal support for the Yorkist cause in the years follow-
ing. This went far beyond most English magnates and
long clouded his relations with Henry Tudor. In 1487,
Kildare backed the Yorkist pretender, Lambert Simnel,
had him crowned Edward VI in Christ Church Cathedral,
Dublin, and recruited four thousand Gaelic kerne
commanded by his brother to invade England. The
Yorkist army was heavily defeated in a three-hour bat-
tle at Stoke-by-Newark in which Thomas Fitzgerald
was killed. Kildare held out for a few months but
eventually submitted. Pardoned in 1488, the deputy
and council refused to give better security for their
conduct, threatening to “become Irish every of them,”
and in 1490 Kildare also evaded a summons to court
(Harris). Yet, when in 1491–1492 another Yorkist pre-
tender, Perkin Warbeck, landed at Cork, attracting sup-
port from the earl of Desmond, Kildare’s cousin,
Henry VII, responded much more energetically. He
dispatched Sir James Ormond with two hundred
troops and dismissed Kildare.
Henry’s attempt to build up Ormond as a counter-
weight to Kildare resurrected the old feud between the
two houses, precipitating serious disturbances. With
Warbeck still at large, the leading nobles and officials
were bound over for their conduct, Kildare in one
thousand marks, and summoned to court. Sir Edward
Poynings was appointed deputy with 653 troops to
hold Ireland and carry out administrative reforms.
Kildare actively supported Poynings, encouraging
Ulster lords to submit, but in February 1495, he was
arrested on charges of plotting with Irish enemies
against the deputy, attainted by the Irish parliament,
and shipped to England. Thereupon, the Geraldines
rose in rebellion, led by Kildare’s brother James, who
seized Carlow castle. Once Poynings had broken
Warbeck’s blockade of Waterford, however, resistance
collapsed, and the king became anxious for a settlement
so as to reduce costs. By 1496, the English parliament
had reversed Kildare’s attainder, he had married the
king’s cousin, and a formal investigation of his con-
tacts with the Ulster lords had cleared him of treason.
Accordingly, following undertakings given before the
king’s council in August, he was reappointed deputy.
Kildare’s son, Lord Gerald, remained at court as
pledge for his conduct.
Thereafter relations between king and earl remained
harmonious. These were years of comparative peace,
prosperity, and strong government in the lordship.
Kildare made regular progresses throughout Ireland:
he visited outlying towns that seldom saw the deputy,
including Carrickfergus in 1503, Galway in 1504, and
Limerick in 1510. In 1512, he captured Belfast and
Larne castles. In 1503, he also visited court for his
son’s marriage, after which Lord Gerald returned to
Ireland as treasurer. In 1504, the largest engagement
of the period, at Knockdoe near Galway, saw the Pale
levies of English bills and bows and Kildare’s Gaelic
clients defeat Ua Briain and Clanrickard Burke in a
rare pitched battle. The king rewarded Kildare with
election to the Order of the Garter. Periodic expedi-
tions against Ua Briain reflected the extended horizons
of English rule, but not all were successful. In 1510,
he broke down the latter’s bridge over the Shannon
but suffered heavy losses. On Henry VII’s death in
1509, Kildare was elected justiciar according to cus-
tom but soon was reappointed deputy by the young
Henry VIII. Age was catching up with the old earl,
too. He was wounded in 1511 while campaigning in
the midlands. Two years later, he was seriously
wounded on campaignshot while watering his horse
near Kilkea. He retired slowly to Kildare and died on
September 3. His body was brought to Dublin and
buried in Christ Church in the chapel he had built two
years earlier.
According to the Annals of Ulster, he exceeded all
the English in power and fame by keeping better justice
and law, building more castles for the English, con-
quering more territory and razing more castles of theFITZGERALD, GERALD (c. 1456–1513)