When Garrett Og, Earl of Kildare, was permitted by Henry VIII to return to Ireland (1529), he was not, as has already been stated, restored to his office of Deputy. This was conferred on Sir William Skeffington, an elderly English knight of no great ability.

The new Viceroy was directed to be guided in his administration by the advice of Kildare. This dual arrangement, however, worked so badly that, in 1532, Skeffington was recalled, and Kildare became Deputy once more.
The haughty Geraldine had apparently not learnt caution from his detention in England ; his administration was as arbitrary and his practical assertion of independence as great as ever.
In 1533 a formal complaint of the Lord Deputy’s doings was drawn up and despatched to England by his enemies on the Council.
It was declared that, owing to his tyranny and injustice and his neglect to protect the inhabitants of the Pale from the Irish enemy, the English power was reduced to a mere shadow ; life, even for the citizens of Dublin, had become almost intolerable, and the public revenue was ruined.