The following year the Earl of Surrey came to Ireland as Lord Lieutenant. He was a friend of Piers Ruadh and was related to him (by marriage) through Sir Thomas Boleyn, a grandson of the previous Earl of Ormonde. At first he displayed much activity against various clans who had risen when Kildare was called away, but he soon tired of a warfare that he deemed to be unending, and he left after one year’s stay. Ormonde was then appointed Lord Deputy (1521).

During his stay in England Kildare was not imprisoned, but remained in attendance upon the King. Both Surrey and Ormonde had employed themselves in collecting evidence against him, and the charges against him were enquired into by Wolsey. But Kildare, like his father, made an influential second marriage with Lady Grey, a relative of the King. Thanks, perhaps, to this, he was allowed to return to Ireland (1523). Almost immediately hostility developed between himself and Ormonde, still Lord Deputy. Commissioners were sent over to inquire, with the result that Ormonde was dismissed and Kildare again made Lord Deputy (1524).

Kildare now devoted himself to attempts to reconcile the powerful northern chiefs, O’Neill and O’Donnell, who were still at war. Conn Bacach O’Neill was the near relative of the Earl and had carried his sword of state at his last inauguration. But although Kildare on one occasion brought an army to his kinsman’s aid, he repeatedly endeavoured to establish peace between the two and, despite the laws against it, formed the tie of gossipred with O’Donnell.