Lambert Simnel and the Retention of Kildare
Henry found that the Yorkist Geraldines were too powerful to interfere with for the present. He did, indeed, summon Kildare to London, but the Earl evaded the call by getting a Parliament to declare that his presence in Ireland was essential. Kildare was continued as Deputy, his brother Thomas as Chancellor, and Portlester as Treasurer.
But they, and nearly all the Anglo-Irish, were still Yorkist, and they soon had an opportunity of displaying their sympathies. The last male representative of the House of York, Edward Plantagenet, Earl of Warwick, a boy of twelve, was a prisoner in the Tower of London. Some Yorkist adherents got a youth named Lambert Simnel to personate him, and brought him to Ireland, where he was received with open arms by the leading officials. Kildare held aloof for some time, but when Warwick’s aunt, the Duchess of Burgundy, sent an army of Germans to support the pretender, the Earl declared in his favour. Simnel was crowned in Christ Church as Edward VI, and was accepted by many of the Anglo-Irish and by many towns, but not by the Butlers or the city of Waterford. At the head of an army of Germans and Anglo-Irish Simnel landed in England, but was defeated and captured at Stoke (H87)-Even this did not disturb Kildare’s position.
Next year Henry sent a Commissioner to take the homage of those who had sided with the Pretender, and to lay down the conditions upon which they would be pardoned. Kildare kept out of the Commissioner’s way for some time, and when he and the Council heard the conditions, they declared that sooner than accept them they woidd one and all “become Irish.” At length the conditions were withdrawn, and Kildare and the other officials were pardoned and retained in office upon taking an oath of allegiance to Henry.
