Surviving the Tudors: The Wizard Earl of Kildare and English Rule in Ireland, 1537-1586

Surviving the Tudors focuses on the political and social world of Gerald Fitzgerald the 'Wizard' earl of Kildare from 1537 to 1586. Kildare's experience provides us with an important insight into the process by which the Irish elites came into conflict with the crown and its representatives in the decades after the fateful Kildare rebellion in 1534. As the case of the 'Wizard' earl suggests, however, this outcome was not inevitable. After surviving Henry VIII's efforts to capture him while in exile on the continent, Kildare went on in the reign of Edward VI to salvage his lands and return to Ireland. Under the Catholic Mary he was restored to the earldom and re-established Geraldine primacy on the Leinster borders. Kildare used his available resources in a flexible response to the gradual extension of English rule. These assets included Gaelic alliances, coign and livery, court connections, and the power that came from being the Pale's greatest feudal lord. Kildare was capable of using these resources to undermine hostile administrations. Traditional border and Gaelic practices and the oscillations of Elizabethan court politics, however, exposed him to the machinations of his New English rivals. Rebellion and religious-inspired foreign intrigue were easily linked to him and provided a means whereby his status at court and in Ireland was finally damaged. The dilemma posed for Kildare during the rebellions of 1579-83 suggests that the disjointed process by which the Tudors extended their rule in Ireland not alone subverted his traditional authority but also forced him to question his very identity.