Above: Garett Oge Fitzgerald

When the lord deputy, Garrett Oge Fitzgerald, went to England in obedience to the king’s mandate, he left his son, the young Lord Thomas, as deputy in his place. On his arrival in London he was sent to the Tower, on various charges. He might possibly have got through his present difficulties, as he had through many others, but for what befell in Ireland, which will now be related.

Lord Thomas Fitzgerald, who was afterwards known as ” Silken Thomas,” from the gorgeous trap- pings of himself and his retinue, was then in his twenty-first year, brave, open and generous. But the earl his father could not have made a more unfortunate choice as deputy; for there were in Dublin plotting enemies who hated all his race, and they led the young man to ruin by taking advantage of his inexperience, and of his unsuspicious disposition.

They now-1534-spread a report that his father had been beheaded in England. Whereupon with his brilliant retinue of seven score horsemen he rode through the streets to St. Mary’s Abbey; and entering the chamber where the council sat, he _openly renounced his allegiance, and proceeded to deliver up the sword and robes of state. His friend archbishop Cromer, now lord chancellor, besought him with tears in his eyes to forego his pur- pose; but at. that moment the voice of an Irish bard was heard from among the young nobleman’s followers, praising the Silken Lord, and calling on him to avenge his father’s death. Casting the sword from his hand, he rushed forth with his men to enter on that wild and hopeless struggle which ended in the ruin of himself and his family. The earl, his father, on hearing of his son’s rebellion, took to his bed, and being already sick of palsy, died in a few days.

Collecting a large force of the Irish septs in and around the Pale, Lord Thomas led them to the walls of Dublin. The city had been lately weakened by a plague, and the inhabitants on promise of protection admitted him. He then laid siege to the castle, to which several of the leading citizens, including archbishop Allen, had retired on the first appearance of danger.

The archbishop, having good reason to dread the Geraldines, for he had always been bitterly hostile to them, attempted during the siege to make his escape by night in a vessel that lay in the Liffey. But he was taken and brought before Lord Thomas at Artaine. Pie threw himself on his knees to beg for mercy, and the young lord, pitying him, ordered his attendants to take him away in custody. But they, wilfully misinter- preting him, murdered the archbishop. This fearful crime brought a sentence of excommunication against Lord Thomas and his followers.

As tune went on, O’Conor Faly, O’Moore, and O’Carroll-three powerful chiefs-joined his standard ; and he had on his side also O’Neill of Tyrone, and O’Brien of Thornond. He and O’Conor Faly now invaded Meath, and burned Trim, Dunboyne, and the surrounding territory.