It may perhaps be useful for me to express at the outset my belief that the documents which explain the actions of the eighth earl of Kildare, who served either as justiciar or as deputy lieutenant of Ireland during the years 1477–92 and 1496–1513, still await a scientific and objective examination : the interpretation of them has so far been too much the result of an attitude of parti pris, and it has made the earl&s relations with the English government unintelligible. This note is, however, intended to do no more than resolve some perplexities that have gathered round his attainder in the Irish parliament in 1495 at tne instigation of Sir Edward Poynings, the then deputy.