On 11 June 1534, the feast of St Barnabas, Thomas Fitzgerald, Lord Offaly, withdrew his allegiance to the crown, setting in motion a string of unintended and destructive consequences. This revolt has since been seen as the dramatic climax of Kildare conflict with both the crown and their old colonial rivals, in which the Geraldines overreached to their ruin. While the tenures of the eighth and ninth earls of Kildare are known to mark the zenith of the Leinster Geraldines’ ascendancy, their rise under the seventh earl, Thomas Fitzgerald, has been understudied. Furthermore, insufficient prior contextualisation has been given to the rise and fall of the Butlers of Ormond, roughly under the Lancastrian crown. Within a few generations, James Butler the White Earl (fourth) of Ormond (1393–1452) and later Gearóid Mór Fitzgerald the Great Earl (eighth) of Kildare (c. 1456–1513) governed as dominant ruling magnates while adopting a broad pan-cultural approach to the maintenance of power. This study begins with an examination of the expressions of power in late medieval and early Tudor Ireland while comparing the ascendancy of the White Earl and the Great Earl as governors. The timeframe of this study commences with the final lord lieutenancy of the White Earl of Ormond, at which point the relations between the Butlers and the Kildare Geraldines were cordial. In developing the argument that non-state paper sources are best interpreted through alternative conceptual tools, this opening chapter examines the fourth earl of Ormond whose supremacy was based on alliances with a considerable network of Gaelic lords. His ascendancy was augmented through extensive cultural patronage that was often non-textual. It was not until the decline of the Butlers alongside the rise of the Kildare Geraldines that these positions and strategies were reversed.

The foremost houses of the old colonial community, active both in the colony and among the Irishry, sustained an equilibrium where stability was largely preserved. This involved the use of Irish extortions, or coign and livery, to deploy a lord's manraed or armed forces. Military support from England was not provided in any meaningful sense and little effort was made to reverse a colony which was in decline until the 1470s.