Fitzgerald, Thomas, Tenth Earl of Kildare ("Silken Thomas")

Thomas Fitzgerald, Lord Offaly, tenth earl of Kildare (1513–1537), leader of the Kildare rebellion (1534–1535), was born in London and spent much of his youth in England. In February 1534, before his father, Lord Deputy Gerald Fitzgerald (ninth earl of Kildare), answered a summons to the Henrician court, he appointed Thomas as vice-deputy during his absence. By May the futility of Gerald's negotiations to preserve the Kildare dynasty's control over Ireland within the newly reformed Tudor polity was manifest. Rumors of Gerald's death and of attempts to lure Thomas to the court were rife. (Meanwhile, Thomas was in Munster soliciting support for the Geraldine cause from Conor O'Brien of Thomond.) Fearful that Thomas might be persuaded by the Irish council to go to court, his father warned him not to trust those councillors lest he should be captured. In early June, Thomas was summoned to appear before the Irish council. Guided by his father's advisors and backed by a guard of 140 horsemen, he dramatically resigned his position as vice-deputy and repudiated his allegiance to Henry VIII at a council meeting in Saint Mary's Abbey, Dublin, on 11 June. A Gaelic bard, de Nelan, invested him with the sobriquet "Silken Thomas" as his horsemen's quilted leather coats were elaborately embroidered with silk. Thomas proclaimed a Catholic crusade and initiated direct contacts with Charles V, Pope Paul III, and James V of Scotland.

The Kildare rebellion has sometimes been interpreted as a show of his dynasty's resistance to the Tudor policy of increased government centralization. Alternatively, it has been viewed as an error of judgment by the Fitzgeralds, occurring at a time when Henry VIII was especially vulnerable as he wrestled with the divorce issue and the introduction of the Reformation.

Henry's reaction was to imprison Gerald in the Tower of London on 29 June. Late in July, Thomas's forces assassinated Archbishop John Alen of Dublin and thereafter wasted the rival Butler earldom and besieged Dublin until 4 October, by which time Thomas's father had died in prison (probably from natural causes) and Thomas succeeded as tenth earl. Henry's resolve to suppress the rebellion was evidenced by the arrival of a 2,300-strong army at Dublin in late October. Thomas was publicly proclaimed a traitor and was attainted by the English parliament on about 18 December. During the winter of 1534 to 1535 he engaged in sporadic ravaging excursions through the Pale and remained hopeful that a 10,000-strong army promised by Charles V would soon arrive in Ireland. Instead, losses and defections weakened his forces, morale was waning, and support dwindled. His campaign was dealt a fatal blow when his principal fortress, Maynooth Castle, surrendered to Lord Deputy Skeffington following a siege (18–23 March). Thomas sought refuge in Munster, where he held out for several months in vain hope of military aid from Charles V. On 24 August he surrendered to his uncle-in-law, Lord Deputy Leonard Grey, on the condition that he would be allowed to live, and was conveyed to London in September and imprisoned in the Tower. The attainder of Thomas and his uncles and their execution at Tyburn on 3 February 1537 precipitated the confiscation of the Kildare estates and left the Kildare Geraldines without a leader. Thomas's revolt removed the Kildares from their position of political dominance in Ireland and facilitated reform of the Dublin government, which was thereafter in the charge of an English-born governor backed by a garrison.

SEE ALSO Monarchy

Bibliography

Bradshaw, Brendan. "Cromwellian Reform and the Origins of the Kildare Rebellion, 1533–4." Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 5th ser., 27 (1977): 69–93.

Ellis, Steven G. "The Kildare Rebellion and the Early Henrician Reformation." Historical Journal 19 (1976): 807–830.

Lyons, Mary Ann. Gearóid Óg Fitzgerald. 1998.

McCorristine, Laurence. The Revolt of Silken Thomas: A Challenge to Henry VIII. 1987.

Ó Siochrú, M. "Foreign Involvement in the Revolt of Silken Thomas, 1534–5." Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, 96C (1996): 49–66.

Mary Ann Lyons