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The Kildare Rebellion and the Early Henrician Reformation*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Steven G. Ellis
Steven G. Ellis
Affiliation:
The Queen's University, Belfast
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Extract

In the 1530s, Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell carried out fundamental changes in the Tudor state. These changes amounted to a revolution in which three elements may be distinguished: the erection of the commonwealth into a sovereign empire, the king's divorce of Catherine of Aragon, and important alterations to the nature and structure of the English church. Because of the fundamental nature of the issues involved and the threat to the established order, the revolution very soon provoked widespread discontent among all sections of society. Nevertheless, opposition was spasmodic and uncoordinated, with each group of conspirators relying on another to rise, and all looking to the emperor, Charles V, to rectify the evils which, it was thought, the king's policies had brought about. Lack of effective leadership and failure to agree about what constituted the major grievances enabled the government to deal with the dissidents one by one. Cromwell was allowed to use parliament to ratify the government's programme and to manipulate public opinion. By constant vigilance and an intelligent use of the constraints placed on the populace by the penal clauses in the statutes, he secured the observance of the more unpopular measures. In spite of the overall success of this policy, the difficulties were many, and the final outcome always in doubt. Its enforcement was thus ‘a political task of some magnitude’ for the government. Probably the most determined challenge to the revolution was presented in Ireland, where rebellion broke out in June 1534.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 19 , Issue 4 , December 1976 , pp. 807 - 830
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1976

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References

1 Elton, G. R., Policy and Police (Cambridge, 1972), p. 3Google Scholar and passim; Mattingly, G., Catherine of Aragon (London, 1942), pp. 283–91.Google Scholar

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5 Quinn, ‘Henry VIII and Ireland’, pp. 320, 330, 337, 341. For this and the following, see also S. G. Ellis, ‘The Kildare Rebellion, 1534’, University of Manchester M.A. thesis 1974, ch. 2.

6 Quinn, ‘Henry VIII and Ireland’, pp. 340–2.

7 Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII, ed. Brewer, and Brodie, , VI, nos. 1056, 1381Google Scholar; Calendar of State Papers, Spanish, v, Part 1, ed. Gayangos, (London, 1886), no. 8.Google Scholar

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9 LP VI 541, 821, 1547. StP 11 198 reporting the arrival of an Imperial ambassador in Ireland to Cromwell, dated by LP vi 815 to 1533, belongs to 1534 - cf. LP VII 945, 957, and StP II 201 - in spite of Cromwell's tide of ‘counsellor’.

10 P.R.O. SP1/238/188 (LP Add. 889 - undated draft, from which internal evidence is later in date than Cromwell's projected ministerial reshuffle); Calendar of Carew Manuscripts, ed. Brewer, and Bullen, (London, 1867), I, no. 41 (Maguire's favourable reply, disclosing the letter's contents).Google Scholar

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12 StP II 194–7, 207–16. Cf. D. B. Quinn, ‘Government Printing and the Publication of the Irish Statutes in the sixteenth century’, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, 49C (1944), 48–9.Google Scholar

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15 StP II 207–16, 226.

16 Quinn, ‘Government Printing’, 48–9; Cal. Sp. v Pt. I 164. A good example of the unfamiliarity of the Irish with the ideas of the Reformation is to be found in the entry for 1537 in The Annals of the Four Masters, ed. O'Donovan, J. (Dublin, 1856)Google Scholar: ‘A heresy and a new error in England, through pride, vainglory, avarice, lust, and through many strange sciences, so that the men of England went into opposition to the Pope and to Rome. At the same time, they adopted strange opinions and the old law of Moses in imitation of the Jewish people, and they styled the King the Chief Head of the Church of God in his own Kingdom. New laws and statutes were enacted by the King and Council according to their own will.’

17 LP VII 437, 726.

18 Cal. Sp. v Pt. 1 70; LP v 715, VI 36, 334, 887; Edwards, R. D., ‘Venerable John Travers and the Rebellion of Silken Thomas’, Studies XXIII (1934), 687–99.Google Scholar

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20 StP II 198; Cal. Sp. v Pt. 1 86.

21 The Pilgrim, ed. Froude, J. A. (London, 1861), pp. 175–6 (prints LP VII 999 in extenso in translation); StP II 222.Google Scholar

22 Cal. Sp. v Pt. 1 164; Scarisbrick, J. J., Henry VIII (London, 1968), pp. 317–21.Google Scholar

23 StP II 222. Cf. Dodds, M. H. and Dodds, R., The Pilgrimage of Grace (Cambridge, 1915), I, 66, 69, 114, 177, 263, 346–74Google Scholar; Scarisbrick, , Henry VIII, pp. 340–4Google Scholar; Mattingly, , Catherine of Aragon, pp. 283–90Google Scholar; Elton, , Policy and Police, pp. 6–12, 24, 59–60, 100, 278, 354.Google Scholar

24 StP II 480; Cal. Sp. v Pt. I 70, 164. The theory had last been used by the earl of Desmond in 1344 - Lydon, J. F., The Lordship of Ireland in the Middle Ages (Dublin, 1972), pp. 197, and 39, 43–4, 148, 168, 190, 289Google Scholar. For Desmond's appeal to the emperor in 1529, see The Pilgrim, ed. Froude, , pp. 169–75.Google Scholar

25 P.R.O. SP60/2/159 (LP ix 514).

26 See below.

27 P.R.O. SP3/14/41 (LP VII 1064) Cal. Sp. v Pt. 1 86; StP II 198, 201; Ellis, ‘The Kildare Rebellion, 1534’, pp. 60–9. I hope to discuss this and other aspects of the rebellion elsewhere.

28 The Annals of Ulster, ed. Hennessy, W. M. and McCarthy, B. (Dublin, 1887–1901)Google Scholar, sub anno. 1534, III 628 note 6, IV iv-v; StP II 201; LP VII 1064; Cal. Sp. v Pt. 1 84; Ware, Sir James, The Histories and Antiquities of Ireland, ed. Ware, R. (Dublin, 1704), p. 89Google Scholar; Holinshed's Chronicles (London1808 edn.), VI (Stanyhurst's chronicle), pp. 294–5Google Scholar; Cal. Carew 1 84.

29 P.R.O. SP60/2/61 (LP VII 1404); Bradshaw, B., ‘The opposition to the ecclesiastical legislation in the Irish reformation parliament’, Ir. Hist. St. XVI (1968–1969), 296, note 30.Google Scholar

30 LP VII 437, 726; Mattingly, , Catherine of Aragon, p. 260Google Scholar. It was reported in October 1534 that Francis had sent letters to encourage the rebels, but if so, he soon returned to a policy of alliance with England against Charles V: LP VII 1302, 1303, 1507, 1519, 1554, VIII 37, 48; Cal. Sp. v Pt. 1 102.

31 P.R.O. SP60/4/4 (LP IX 332); StP II 256.

32 StP II 539, III 124; Cal. Sp. v, Pt. I 70; LP VII 1567, x 937. For the standing of the friars in Ireland at this time, see Bradshaw, , The Dissolution of the Religious Orders, pp. 9–16Google Scholar, and Watt, , The Church in Medieval Ireland, pp. 193–202.Google Scholar

33 P.R.O. SP60/3/192 (LP XI 1416); LP x 1032; Gwynn, A. and Hadcock, R. N., Medieval Religious Houses: Ireland (London, 1970), pp. 210, 213Google Scholar; Bradshaw, , The Dissolution of the Religious Orders, p. 42.Google Scholar Dowdall later became the Henrician archbishop of Armagh.

34 Cal. Pat. Rolls Ire. I 1–138Google Scholar; Statutes at large, Ireland, 33 Henry VIII session I c. 14 (c. 6 on., roll); Bradshaw, , The Dissolution of the Religious Orders, ch. 3Google Scholar; Edwards, , ‘The Irish Reformation Parliament’, pp. 67–78Google Scholar. Of the Irish patent rolls of Henry VIII, most before the 22nd year did not survive into modern times, and the remainder were destroyed in 1922. Many entries can only be dated to one of successive regnal years, so it has seemed best to give, the totals triennially.

35 Cal. Pat. Rolls, Ire. I 15Google Scholar; StP II 236–7.

36 P.R.O. SP65/1/2 (LP XIIii 1310 43). The two other vacancies were the vicarage of Rathbegan and the abbacy of Monasterevin, for which see below.

37 StP II 200, 270, 320; LP VIII 82; Bradshaw, , ‘The opposition to the ecclesiastical legislation’, pp. 289–302Google Scholar; Edwards, , ‘The Irish Reformation Parliament’, pp. 66–80Google Scholar. Cf. Elton, , Policy and Police, p. 389.Google Scholar

38 Ellis, , ‘The Kildare Rebellion, 1534’, pp. 183–91.Google Scholar

39 Stanyhurst, p. 294; StP II 201; Cal. Carew I 84; LP VII 1064. The government later made allowance of £70 10s. I d. for rents collected by the rebels - P.R.O. SP65/1/2.

40 P.R.O. SP60/2/61, 113 (LP VII 1404, VIII 728).

41 Cotton, H., Fasti Ecclesiae Hibernicae (Dublin 1868), II, passimGoogle Scholar; Cal. Pat. Rolls, Ire. I 14–24Google Scholar; Edwards, , ‘John Travers’, pp. 687–99Google Scholar.

42 B.M. Add. 4793 fo. 124V; Edwards, , ‘John Travers’, pp. 696–7Google Scholar; StP III 1–2; LP XIIii 1310.

43 StP II 420–1, LP XIIii 477, 549. But see Bradshaw, ‘The opposition to the ecclesiastical legislation’, p. 296 note 30.

44 StP II 539–40. Cf. StP III 6–7. I have altered the context of the second quotation in accordance with Browne's intended meaning. The original ran illogically:’ Before the royal supremacy had been declared…’

45 StP II 221–2; B. M. Harleian 3756 fo. 9 (printed in Hore, H. F. ed., ‘The rental book of Gerald Fitzgerald, ninth earl of Kildare’, Journal of the Kilkenny Archaeological Society, VIII (1862–1863), 114Google Scholar) Cal. Carew I 84. In spite of his attainder, Reynolds was still archdeacon of Kells in 1543: Gwynn, A., The Medieval Province of Armagh (Dundalk, 1946), p. 127.Google Scholar

46 StP II 236–7; Cal. Carew 184; Costello, M. A., De Annatis Hiberniae (Dublin, 1912), I, 82.Google Scholar

47 Statutes at large, Ireland, 28 Henry VIII c. 1; LP IV 4302.

48 StP II 45; LP XIIii 1310 II 9; Bradshaw, , The Dissolution of the Religious Orders, p. 42.Google Scholar

49 Gwynn, A. and Gleeson, D., History of the Diocese of Killaloe (Dublin, 1962), I, 448–9Google Scholar. Curran may formerly have been a priest in the diocese of Meath (Gwynn and Gleeson, op. cit.). His predecessor was in receipt of gifts from Kildare: H.M.C. 9th Report, pp. 280,282. In 1536, the government narrowly failed to capture the bishop and two of his sons: Cal. Carew I 135.

50 StP II 221, 243,402–3; Trinity College Library, Dublin, MS 557 XII 545 (copy of Cromer's register, fo. 77V of original in Armagh Public Library). Cromer was lord chancellor of Ireland until August 1534: Cal. Pat. Rolls, Ire. I 13Google Scholar. He died in 1543. The political affiliations of Roche and Cromer during the rebellion are discussed in Gwynn, The Medieval Province of Armagh, pp. 61–2.Google Scholar

51 B. M. Harleian 3756 fos. 28, 31V-39, 64V-66 - certain sections printed in Hore ed., ’Rental book of Kildare’, Jn. Kilkenny Arch. Soc, VIII (1864–1865), 527–45Google Scholar, and H.M.C. 9th Report, p. 278; Cal. Pat. Rolls, Ire. I 12–35.Google Scholar

52 StP II 204–7; LP Add. 982. The Crown's delegation to its deputy of the lesser ecclesiastical presentations in its gift may seem relevant here. However, between 1519 and 1534, Kildare was only in a position to exercise this power for a total of less than four years, and it does not follow that nominees would support the rebels. In connection with clerical motivation, Bowker, M., ‘Lincolnshire 1536: Heresy, Schism or Religious Discontent’, Studies in Church History, IX, ed. Baker, D. (Cambridge, 1972), 195–212Google Scholar, provides a useful comparison of the conflicting reasons for the participation of individual clergy in a better documented, contemporary revolt.

53 The Pilgrim, ed. Froude, , pp. 175–6Google Scholar (LP VIII 999); Stanyhurst, pp. 303–4; Ware, p. 90; LP VII 1457, 1535; Cat. Sp. v Pt. I 70, 90.

54 StP II 221–2; Cal. Carew I 84.

55 Hayes-McCoy, G. A., ‘Unpublished Letters of King James V of Scotland relating to Ireland’, Analecta Hibernica XII (1943), 179–81Google Scholar; StP II 248.

56 StP II 197–9, 201–2; LP VII 945; Cal. Sp. v Pt. 1 70.

57 P.R.O. Transcripts 31/18/3/1 fo. 183V: ‘munition de guerre’ - probably ‘ammunition’, but perhaps ‘ordnance’ - cf. Cal. Sp. v, Pt. 1 127 and LP VIII 48: Cal. Sp. v Pt. 187, 103, 127; LP VII 999, 1567. Cal. Sp. v Pt. 1 103 (minutes of an Imperial Council, 31 October: cf. LP VII 1336) mistranslates an important section concerning Charles V's notification of his intentions to the rebels by March 1535. Fortunately, the original is quoted in a footnote.

58 Cal. Sp. v Pt. I 87, 103, 127; LP VII 1425, 1567, VIII 48; Hayes-McCoy, G. A., ‘The early history of guns in Ireland’, Galway Archaeobgical and Historical Society Journal XVIII (1938), 54–5Google Scholar; The Letters of James V, ed. Hay, D. (Edinburgh, 1954), pp. 264–7, 277–8, 281Google Scholar. The movements of Antony and Eriksson are obscure: the emperor lost touch completely with Eriksson at one stage.

59 LP VII 1425, 1567, VIII 189; Cal. Sp. v Pt. I 122, 126, 127 (misreading ‘v’ for ‘vc’ horsemen - P.R.O. Transcripts 31/18/3/1 fo. 183V: cf. LP VIII 48).

60 Cal. Sp. v Pt. I 70, 84, 86, 103; LP VII 1425; Armstrong, E., The Emperor Charles V (London, 1902), I, 272–4Google Scholar; Mattingly, , Catherine of Aragon, pp. 259–60, 266Google Scholar; Wernham, R. B., Before the Armada (London, 1966), pp. 127–31.Google Scholar

61 P.R.O. Transcripts 31/8/145 fo. 63 (calendared twice in LP VII 229, VIII 272ii); B.M. Add. 28588 fos. 161–2 (LP VIII 270). The two transcripts are French and Spanish versions of an original document in Spanish. Charles V left Madrid at the end of February: LP VIII 272.

62 LP VIII 272.

63 LP VIII 697; Armstrong, , The Emperor Charles V, I, 273.Google Scholar

64 StP II 221, 227, 237, 247 note. Kildare surrendered conditionally on 24 August.

65 Cat. Sp. v Pt. I 164, 208; Costello, De Annatis Hiberniae, I, 82.Google Scholar

66 Cat. Sp. v Pt. 184, 87; StP II 237,247 note 2,248. James wrote to Manus O'Donnell that he would refuse him no just request: Hayes-McCoy, ‘Unpublished Letters of James V, 179. See also Mackie, J. D., ‘Henry VIII and Scotland’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 4th Ser. XXIX (1947), 111.Google Scholar

67 Cal. Sp. v Pt. 1 84, 127, 139; LP VII 1350 (misplaced in October 1534); Stp V 23 (spelling modernised); Stanyhurst, p. 295. The Scots took the opportunity to increase their presence in Ulster: LP ix 515. Galloglass were the heavily armed mercenary footmen employed in Irish warfare from the fourteenth until the seventeenth century.

68 Hayes-McCoy, ‘Unpublished Letters of James V, p. 180; LP IX 514.

69 Cat. Sp. v Pt. I 90, 102; LP VII 1457, 1535, 1575, viii 189, 263, StP II 198–9, 201.

70 Cal. Sp. v Pt. 1 70, 102, 127; LP VIII 189, 263, 697. Cromwell had earlier calculated that the emperor would not intervene against government policy, but frankly admitted to Chapuys that the king was ruined if he did: Mattingly, , Catherine of Aragon, 265–6, 276.Google Scholar

71 LP VII 1457, 1567, 1575, VIII 18, 189.

72 Cal. Sp. v Pt. I 109; LP VIII 189; StP II 227, 229, 237, 247 and note.

73 P.R.O. SP65/1/1 (LP XI 934); StP II 203, 267; Cal. Sp. v Pt. 1 102, 109; LP VII 1291, VIII, 121. See Ellis, , ‘The Kildare Rebellion, 1534’, pp. 75–6, 107–8, 112–17, 122–3Google Scholar. Richard II brought 6000 men in 1394–5 and rather less five years later. Poynings had about 700 men with him and Norfolk 500: Lydon, , The Lordship of Ireland in the Middle Ages, pp. 233–4, 238, 268, 274Google Scholar; Quinn, , ‘Henry VIII and Ireland’, p. 326.Google Scholar

74 Elton, , Policy and Police, ch. 4.Google Scholar For the rebellion in Munster, see Ellis, , ‘The Kildare Rebellion, 1534’, pp. 108–11, 124–30Google Scholar. It was contained by a commission and a series of letters from England, see especially, B.M. Add. 4799 fos. 43–3v, 44v; P.R.O. SP1/89/34 (LP VIII 58).

75 Cal. Sp. v Pt. I 164, 176; StP II 217–19. Even if an indulgence were not granted, the rumour still supports the argument.

76 Cal. Sp. v Pt. 1 217; LP XIIii 73. Cf. Cal. Sp. v Pt. 1 164, 208; LP XI 376.

77 Cal. Sp. v Pt. 1 70, 84, 86, 109; Calendar of State Papers, Milan (1385–1612), ed. Hinds, (London, 1912), p. 976.Google ScholarCf. Mattingly, , Catherine of Aragon, pp. 259–60.Google Scholar

78 Cal. Sp. v Pt. 1 84, 86, 87, 90, 102, in, 114, 118, 122, 127, 142, 150, 178, 257.

79 Ibid. 90, 97.

80 Ibid. 70, 84, 102, in, 122, 127, 142, 150, 198, 257; LP VIII 263.

81 Cal. Sp. v Pt. 1 70,84,87, 127. The picture drawn by Mattingly, G., Renaissance Diplomacy (London, 1955), pp. 243–6Google Scholar, of Chapuys’ attempts to improve his intelligence network seems to be relected in the remarkably accurate intelligence he received from Ireland.

82 Cal. Sp. v Pt. I 164; LP VIII 565. Hale was indicted, and executed at Tyburn for the following treasonable words: ‘Until the king and the rulers of this realm be plucked by the pates, and brought, as we say, to the pot, shall we never live merrily in England; which I pray God may chance and now shortly come to pass. Ireland is set against him, which will never shrink in their quarrel to die in it. And what think ye of Wales? - Their noble and gentle ap Ryce so cruelly put to death, and he innocent, as they say, in the cause. I think not contrary but they will join and take part with the Irish, and so invade our realm. If they do, doubt ye not but they shall have aid and strength enough in England; for this is truth, three parts of England is against the king, as he shall find if he need; for of truth they go about to bring this realm into such miserable condition as is France, which the commons see and perceive well enough a sufficient cause of rebellion and insurrection in this realm. And truly we of the I Church shall never live merrily until that day come’ - quoted in LP VIII 609. Cf. Cal. Sp. v Pt. I 86, 87, 257.

83 Cat. Sp. v Pt. I 87, 150.

84 Ibid. 86; LP XI 1086, XIIi 944. Cf. Mattingly, , Catherine of Aragon, p. 287Google Scholar; Dickens, A. G., ‘Secular and Religious Motivation in the Pilgrimage of Grace’, Studies in Church History, IV, ed. Cuming, G. J. (Leiden, 1967), 46–7Google Scholar. The government suspected a connection between the English dissidents and the rebels: Lambeth Library MS 602 fos. 139V, 14OV f (entirely omitted from Cal. Carew I 84).

85 P.R.O. SP1/101/67 (LP x 19); Cat. Sp. v Pt. 1 90; Skeel, C. A. J., The Council in the Marches of Wales (London 1904), pp. 55–6Google Scholar. Cf. LP VII 650, 710, 1567, IX 319, XIIi 845; Mattingly, , Catherine of Aragon, pp. 288–9.Google Scholar

86 See the debate on the reasons for this in Edwards, R. D., Church and Stale in Tudor Ireland (Dublin, 1935), pp. 7–15Google Scholar, and ‘The Irish Reformation Parliament’, p. 70, and in Bradshaw, ‘The opposition to the ecclesiastical legislation’, pp. 289–302, and ’The Beginnings of Modern Ireland’, in The Irish Parliamentary tradition, ed. Farrell, B. (Dublin, 1973), pp. 72 and 263 (note)Google Scholar. No doubt, any potential martyrs had already attracted government attention for complicity in the rebellion.

87 Cf. Reid, R. R., The King's Council in the North (London, 1921), pp. 121–36.Google Scholar

88 Mattingly, , Catherine of Aragon, p. 290.Google Scholar