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Cromwellian Reform and the origins of the Kildare Rebellion, 1533–34

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

B. Bradshaw
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Extract

Among the major political events in a century of momentous political change in Ireland the Kildare rebellion of 1534–1535 has been accorded a special significance by contemporaries and historians alike. The downfall of the most renowned Anglo-Irish noble family and the personal tragedies of the doughty old earl and his dashing young heir, gave the story an aura of romance that caught the fancy of the Elizabethans—it inspired an Elizabethan drama— and partly accounts for its prominence in popular histories. More scholarly commentators have emphasized its significance as a water-shed in the history of English government in Ireland. The subsequent course of events reveal it as a point of transition from the medieval to the early modern phase of Irish political history, the juncture at which the hold of Anglo-Irish feudal magnates on crown government was broken and at which the period of uninterrupted super-vision from England began.

Type
Research Article
Information
Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , Volume 27 , December 1977 , pp. 69 - 93
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1977

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References

1 After years of neglect the rebellion recently attracted the attention simulta-neously of two able research students. The resultant theses make very substantial progress towards a fullscale revision of the received historiography,Ellis, S. G., ‘The Kildare Rebellion’, unpublished M.A. thesis, Manchester, 1974Google Scholar;Corristine, Lawrence, ‘The Kildare Rebellion’, unpublished M.A. thesis, University College, Dublin, 1975Google Scholar. I have to thank Professor G. R. Elton for helpful advice in the preparation of this paper. It has also benefited from discussions with Mr Ellis.

2 Stanihurst, N., ‘The chronicles of Ireland’ in Holinshed's Chronicles, vi ( London, 1808 edn), 285–93Google Scholar. For examples of the later historiography see especiallyWilson, P., The beginnings of modem Ireland ( Dublin, 1912 ), pp. 87–94Google Scholar. cf. Bagwell, R., Ireland under the Tudors (London, 1885) i, pp. 158–63Google Scholar.Gwynn, A., The medieval province of Armagh (Dundalk, 1946), pp. 68–69Google Scholar.

3 A lengthy entry on Richard Stanihurst in the D.N.B. deals with the history of the family in the sixteenth century.

4 Quinn, D. B., ‘Henry VIII and Ireland, 1509–1534’in Irish Historical Studies, xii (1961), pp. 340–43Google Scholar.

5 Quinn, D. B., ‘Henry VIII and Ireland, 1509–1534’ in Irish Historical Studies, xii (1961), p. 343Google Scholar.

6 Two can be traced to this period. One is a series of articles submitted by Sir William Darcy to the English privy council in 1515, Lambeth, Carew MS. 635, pp. 188–89 ( Cal. Carew MSS., i, no. 2). The other is a more elaborate anonymous treatise, copies of which survive in two slightly different versions, P.R.O., S.P. 60/1, no. 9. (S[tate] P[apers] Henry VIII, ii, p. i), British Library, Add. MS. 4792, fo 96 ff. On the Anglo-Irish movement of political reform seeBradshaw, B. ‘The Irish Constitutional Revolution, 1515–57’, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Cambridge, 1975Google Scholar.

7 On Darcy's treatise, see above, n. 6. A contemporary copy of Finglas's ‘Brevy-ate of the conqueste of Ireland and of the decay of the same’, written in the hand of his son, Thomas, is in P.R.O., S.P. 60/2, no. 7. Later copies are in Lambeth, Carew MS. 600, p. 204, 621, p. 92 ( Cal. Car. MSS., i, no. 1). An extended version of Finglas is found in copy in Trinity College Dublin MS. 842, fos 25–36. This version was published at Dublin by Harris, Walter in Hibernica in 1747Google Scholar. For the association of Darcy and Finglas with Surrey's, expedition see S.P. Henry VIII, ii, 61, 63Google Scholar.Quinn, , ‘Henry VIII and Ireland’ in Irish Historical Studies, xii, p. 324Google Scholar, also Bradshaw, unpublished Ph.D. thesis.

8 S.P. Hemy VIII, ii, p. 135 (L[etters and] P[apers], [Henry VIII], iv (ii), no. 4459).

9 S.P. Henry VIII, ii, p. 158 (L.P., v, no. 878). Gwynn, A., The Medieval Province of I Armagh (Dundalk, 1946), pp. 63–66Google Scholar. On all of this see the note on Alen in the D.N.B.

10 L.P., vi, nos. 929 (26), 1051.

11 P.R.O., E.36/139, p. 17, L.P., vii, no. 923 (iv). Cromwell's Anglo-Irish contacts at this time included at least two others who were associated with reform, viz. Luttrell, Thomas from the Pale, , L.P., vi, no. 727Google Scholar, and Wise, William of Waterford, , L.P., vi, no. 815Google Scholar.

12 S.P. Henry VIII, ii, p. 153 (L.P., v, no. 688).

13 P.R.O., E.36/139, pp. 83, 95, 114 (L.P., vii, no. 923 (xix, xxi, xxxi)).

14 On Cromwell's rise to power, see Elton, , The Tudor Revolution in Government (Cambridge, 1969), pp. 71–98Google Scholar.

15 L.P., vi, no. 929 (26).

16 L.P., vi, no. 105 (16), 1250.

17 B.L., Titus, B, i, fos 453–57 (L.P., vi, no. 1381)Google Scholar.

18 The date cannot be fixed precisely, but Kildare's, wife had appeared at court in answer to the call by 3 11, L.P., vi, no. 1249Google Scholar.

19 Stanihurst, , cit., pp. 286–87Google Scholar.

20 L.P., vi, nos. 105 (16), 841 (i), 1250. Calendar of patent rolls Ireland, Henry VIII–Eliz., p. 4.

21 L.P., vi, no. 944.

22 L.P., vi, no. 1349. O'Donovan, J. (ed.), Annals of Ireland (Dublin, 1846), v pp. 1410–11Google Scholar.

23 L.P., vi, no. 1072. Cf. Statutes at Large (Ire.), i, p. 66 (‘For the attainder of the earl of Kildare and others’).

24 Quinn, , ‘Henry VIII and Ireland, 1509–34’ in Irish Historical Studies, xii, p. 342Google Scholar.

25 For a contemporary explanation of the Geraldine, tactic see S.P. Henry VIII, ii, p. 169Google Scholar, L.P., vi, no. 1582 (2). Cf. Statutes at large (Ire), i, p. 66. On Howth, see L.P., vi, nos. 944, 1170Google Scholar.

26 Thus the imperial ambassador advised Charles V in April 1534 that the like-lihood of Kildare's son engaging in subversion could be discounted so long as his father was in London, L.P., vii, no. 530. For this reason also the earl had been detained in London in the course of the Surrey expedition and again in 1529–30. The same thinking prompted Robert Cowley to blame the outbreak of rebellion on the decision to allow Silken Thomas to return to Ireland from his period of attendance at court, S.P. Henry VIII, ii, p. 197.

27 S.P. Henry VIII, ii, p. 182 (L.P., vi, no. 1397).

28 Lambeth, , Carew MS. 602, fo 138 (Col. Carew MSS., i, no. 84)Google Scholar. P.R.O., S.P. 60/2, no. 63 (L.P., ix, no. 514).

29 L.P., vii, nos. 15a, 530. P.R.O., S.P. 1/83, p. 46 (L.P., vii, no. 44 (ii)).

The memorandum can be dated to a period after the issue of the congé d'élire for the election of a prior for Thugarton (3 March 1534) and before the issue of a congé d'élire for the election at Tewkesbury, , L.P., vii, no. 419 (2), (23)Google Scholar.

30 P.R.O., S.P. 60/6, no. 33 (L.P., xiii (i), no. 883). Cal. Carew MSS., i, no. 126.

31 S.P. Henry VIII, ii, p. 181 (L.P., vi, no. 1347).

32 P.R.O., S.P. 60/2, no. 7. For a holograph in the hand of Thomas Finglas see S.P. 60/2, no. 18 (L.P., viii, no. 1081). Cusack's, departure for court in the autumn of 1533 is referred to in L.P., vi, no. 1250Google Scholar.

33 Alen's ‘Instructions’ claimed the authority of the Irish Council, but this can hardly be accepted. It lacked the support not only of the acting lord deputy, Kildare's son, but of the Geraldine chief justice of the common pleas, and the lord of Howth, , S.P. Henry VIII, ii, p. 162Google Scholar (L.P., vi, no. 1586). The two anonymous treatises are not dated but internal evidence places them in the winter of 1533–34, e.g. both were written while Kildare and Ossory were on their way to court, P.R.O., S.P. 60/2, pp. 4–13, 30–37. S.P. Henry VIII, ii, pp. 166, 182 (L.P., vi, no. 1587, vii, no. 264).

34 L.P., vii, no. 1141 (cf. L.P., vi, no. 1069).

35 Cal. Carew MSS., i, no. 41 (L.P., vii, no. 211).

36 The memoranda are placed in incorrect sequence in L.P., vii. The correct Kquence is B.L., Titus, B, i, fo 459 (L.P., vii, no. 108)Google Scholar, P.R.O., E.36/143, p. 43 (L.P. vii, no. 50), S.P. 1/82, p. 130 (L.P., vii, no. 107).

37 P.R.O., S.P. 1/83, p. 46 (L.P., vii, no. 414 (ii)). For the dating see above n. 29.

38 L.P., vii, no. 48. This memorandum belongs to the same period as tha t of L.P., vii, no. 257, viz. between the election and consecration of the bishops of Ely and of Coventry and Lichfield, , L.P., vii, no. 587 (28), 761 (17)Google Scholar.

39 L.P., vii, no. 420.

40 Calendar of patent rolls, Ireland, Henry VIII–Eliz., p. 12. Fiants, Ireland, Henry VIII, p. 36.

41 S.P. Henry VIII, ii, p. 193 (L.P., vii, nos. 704–05).

42 S.P. Henry VIII, ii, p. 194 (L.P., vii, no. 740).

43 S.P. Henry VIII, ii, 207. The ‘Ordinances’ are not dated so that it cannot be laid precisely at what date prior to SkefBngton's departure for Ireland, at the beginning of August 1534, they were devised and put into print, L.P., vii, no. 105. However, a delay of some months must be allowed for printing. The complementary nature of the indenture concluded with Ossory on 31 May suggests that the two documents were prepared in conjunction. For Alen's, comment see S.P. Henry VIII, ii, p. 226Google Scholar. On the reform of the outlying areas see Elton, , England under the Tudors (2nd edn, London, 1974), pp. 175–76Google Scholar, Loades, D. M., Polities and the nation, 1450–1660 (Brighton, 1974), pp. 175–79Google Scholar.

44 P.R.O., S.P. 60/2, no. 63 (L.P. Addenda, i (i), no. 889), S.P. 60/2, no. 63 (L.P., ix, no. 514), L.P., vii, no. 736.

45 P.R.O., S.P. 60/2, no. 63 (L.P., ix, no. 514). Lambeth, , Carew MS. 602, fo 139 (Cat. Carew MSS., i, no. 84)Google Scholar. S.P. Henry VIII, ii, p. 197 (L.P., vii, no. 915).

46 See my unpublished Ph.D. thesis, ‘The Irish constitutional revolution’, Cambridge, 1975Google Scholar.

47 Stanihurst, , cit., p. 287Google Scholar. L.P., vii, nos. 957, 1015.

48 S.P. Henry VIII, ii, p. 182, above p. 85.

49 L.P., vi, nos. 551, 1056, vii, nos. 50, 107, 108.

50 P.R.O., S.P. 1/83, p. 46. L.P., vii, no. 414 (ii).

51 S.P. Henry VIII, ii, pp. 194, 207.

52 The evidence for these is a deposition taken from a retainer who went to England with Kildare and returned in May 1534 to join Thomas, Silken, Lambeth, , Carew MS. 602, fo 138 (Cal. Carew MSS., i, no. 84)Google Scholar. The account there provided is implicitly corroborated by an interrogatory prepared for Silken Thomas in 1535, P.R.O., S.P. 60/2, no. 63 (L.P., ix, no. 514).

53 L.P., vii, no. 957.

54 Lambeth, , Carew MS. 602, fo 138 (Cal. Carew MSS., i, no. 84)Google Scholar. P.R.O., S.P. 3/4, p. i n (L.P., vii, no. 614). L.P., vii, no. 530.

55 Lambeth, ibid. P.R.O., S.P. 60/2, no. 63 (L.P., ix, no. 514).

56 Loc. cit.

57 Loc. cit.

58 Stanihurst, , ‘The chronicles of Ireland’ in Holinshed's Chronicles, vi, 290Google Scholar.

59 The deposition already referred to mentions both. It was provided by a member of the retinue who accompanied Silken Thomas to the meeting of the Irish Council, Lambeth, , Carew MS. 602, fo 139 (Cal. Carew MSS., i, no. 84)Google Scholar. Cf. P.R.O., S.P. 60/2, no. 63 (L.P., ix, no. 514). See also below, n. 63.

60 In this matter I share the view of crown government at the time. Statutes at Large (Ire.), i, 66. Despite differences of emphasis and of interpretation the two theses mentioned in n. I reach a similar conclusion about the premeditated nature of the revolt.

61 Stanihurst, , ‘The chronicles of Ireland in Holinshed’s Chronicles, vi, 304Google Scholar.

62 L.P., vii, no. 1141. Chapuys, noted the earl's death late in September, L.P., vii, 5 no. 1193Google Scholar.

63 L.P., vii, no. 957.

64 L.P., vii, no. 1193.

65 On the operations of the imperial agent in Ireland in the second half of 1533 see L.P., vi, no. 815, vii, nos. 122, 152, 229, 945, 980, 1057, 1095, 1297, also Ellis, , ‘The Kildare rebellion, 1534’ unpublished M.A. thesis, Manchester, 1974Google Scholar, and idem ‘The Kildare rebellion and the early Henrician Reformation’ in the Historical Journal, xix (1976), pp. 807–30, Ellis takes a different view to the one expressed here.

66 S.P. Henry VIII, ii, p. 120.

67 This is implied by the interrogatory devised for Silken Thomas in 1535, P.R.O., S.P. 60/2 no. 63 (L.P., ix, no. 514). Ellis, ‘The Kildare rebellion and the early Henrician Reformation’ in the Historical Journal, op. cit.

68 They are discussed from rather different angles by Ellis, n. 1. above, and Bradshaw, , ‘The Irish constitutional revolution 1515–57, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Cambridge, 1975Google Scholar.