O’Donnell was found willing, and in the spring of 1538 the Lady Eleanor, with Gerald and his tutor, journeyed from Cork to Donegal, where the marriage was celebrated. The lady at once bestirred herself to form a confederacy of the northern and western chiefs, the ostensible object of which was the protection of her nephew and the upholding of his cause. This confederacy is known as ” the Geraldine League,” but, except that all opposed the Lord Deputy and his Government, there was not much singleness of purpose amongst its members. It was, however, a very powerful and widely spread association, and both Anglo-Irish, like Mac William Burke of Clanrickard and his kinsman Mac William of Mayo, and Irish chiefs, like O’Donnell and O’Neill, adhered to it.

Meanwhile; Grey, finding his former policy both ineffective and costly, modified it in the direction of conciliation. He succeeded in gaining over Brian O’Connor, and the campaign which he undertook in the spring and early summer of 1538 was as much diplomatic as military. Many of the midland and southern chiefs, as well as the Earl of Desmond and several of the Burkes, were induced or forced to ” come in.” They promised tribute and adherence to the English Government; but that the tribute would ever be paid, or that the adherence would be long-lasting, Grey must have been by this time too well acquainted with Irish affairs to suppose. Well pleased with the result of his labours, Grey returned to Dublin in July.

By the Lord Deputy’s enemies, however, his very success was made a pretext for further attacks. He had, they said, received into favour some of the most determined enemies of the English Government, O’Connor, O’Brien, the Butlers, the Desmonds, and their like. This, no doubt, was in part true, for it was Grey’s policy to endeavour to gain over the most hostile and dangerous of the chiefs. Sir Piers Butler, who had lately exchanged the title of Ossory for that of Ormond, the old title f his family, was the most powerful man on the Council, and Grey’s chief accuser.

The Geraldine League had been but little weakened by the submissions obtained in the preceding year, and in the early part of 1539 it had assumed formidable proportions. The Ulster chiefs, almost without exception, adhered to it; so did many of those of Connacht. Desmond, whose influence in the south was very great, had drawn numbers of the Munster leaders, both Celtic and Anglo-Irish, in the same direction. The loyalty even of the Pale gentry could not be much relied on. Young Gerald was growing up, and had begun to bestir himself in his own cause and to seek adherents. Help was being asked from James of Scotland, and mercenaries hired from Macdonnell, Lord of the Isles.

In July (1539) the hostilities began. James of Desmond invaded Tipperary, and the Ulster chiefs, marching south, attacked the Pale, laying waste the open country and burning several towns. A series of raids and combats followed, into an account of which it would be tedious to enter. There was no decisive result obtained from the campaign as a whole. The Geraldine League was, however, not of a kind to last long, and the departure from Ireland of young Gerald, in the spring of 1540, hastened its decay, since it removed the only bond which had held its members together.

Lady Eleanor, fearing that some accident or treachery might place the lad in his uncle’s hands, sent him disguised on board a French vessel which landed him at St. Malo. After a while he proceeded to Rome, where Cardinal Pole, his kinsman, received him, and enabled him to complete his education. He returned in 1552 to England, and, two years later, to Ireland ; his title and part of his lands having been restored to him by Queen Mary.