489 



of constitutional polity, was regarded by the Irish themselves in the 

 sixteenth century as oppressive or unjust. It must be remembered 

 that the same system prevailed under the other great Anglo-Irish fami- 

 lies — Ossory, Desmond, and De Burgo ; and that the protection thus ob- 

 tained, equivocal as it may seem to have been, was in many cases almost 

 the only available bulwark against utter misrule. This Mac Eannall 

 Deed, as well as the various analogous covenants, upon which the major 

 part of the payments of the Kildare rental were founded, will be found 

 to be a literal exemplification of the condition of things described in a 

 State Paper addressed to the King in 1534, cited by Mr. Hore, as to 

 the exactions of the Earls of Kildare, Ormond, and Desmond. " For the 

 moyre part all the captains of the whild Irish is in subj action, and doth 

 bere grate tribute to your said Erles, or els by reison of the mariage and 

 norising of ther children, be at ther comandments ; whereby it is to 

 be entendyd, that, when thes Erles be reformyd, all thes Irish captaines 

 which is undur ther trubut and at ther comandment, must at all 

 tymys yeld your Grace trubut & service." 



It is hardly an exaggeration to say, that over a large proportion of 

 the country included within the territories of the several septs which 

 I have enumerated, the name and authority of the Earls of Kildare, 

 quite as much, if not more than those of the King of England, were, 

 during this period, the representatives of law and order, jat least such law 

 and order as it seemed desirable to themselves to maintain. ISTor, with 

 facts like these before us, can we feel much wonder at Henry VII.'s half 

 jesting and whole serious declaration, that " as all Ireland could not 

 rule the Earl, then the Earl must rule all Ireland ;" at the vehement 

 outburst of "Wolsey* before the Council, " The Earl — nay, the King of 

 Kildare ! — for, when he is disposed, he reigns more like than rules the 

 land;" or at the traditional popular estimate of this memorable family, 

 which is embodied in Thomas Davis's well-known ballad, already 

 cited — 



" The Geraldines ! — the Geraldines! — how royally they reigned 

 O'er Desmond broad, and rich Kildare, and English arts disdained ! 

 Their sword made knights, their banner waved, free was their bugle call, 

 By Gleann's green slopes, and Daingeann's tide from Barrha's banks to Eochaill. 

 What gorgeous shrines, what breitheamh lore, what minstrel feasts there were 

 In and around Magh Meaghaid's keep and palace-filled Adare ! 

 But not for rite or feast ye stayed, when friend or kin were pressed, 

 And foemen fled when ' Crom a-boo proclaimed your lance in rest I" 



* "Earls of Kildare," p. 102. 



