ABSTRACT
The recovery and reduction of Ireland proved to be a general Tudor problem; to Henry VII its urgency was brought home by the fact that the country offered a safe and friendly springboard to any claimant, however absurd. In 1485 the power of Fitzgerald was paramount. The elder branch of the Butlers had moved to England, and though Henry VII restored them to their forfeited lands-in Ireland, this did not affect the position of the great earl of Kildare whose many links with native families and wide personal possessions made him the virtual ruler of the country. He held the title of lord deputy and his brother was chancellor of Ireland; for the moment, Henry VII could not attempt to attack these
8trongholds of Geraldine power. Kildare was a curious character: arrogant and restless, he was yet gifted with some political skill, little rancour, and a roughish humour which, as it happened, appe&led to the king. The support which the earl gave to Lambert Simnel was blatant and avowed, but Henry deliberately ignored it and permitted the two Fitzgeralds to continue in office when they admitted that they had been mistaken about the pretender. But forbearance was not the right treatment for a man who had earned the title of 'the great earl' by invariably getting his own way. In 1491, when Perkin Warbeck was acclaimed at Cork, Kildare showed himself cautiously ready to side with him, and in June 1492 Henry at last deprived him of the deputyship. Thomas Fitzgerald lost the great seal of Ireland, and the offices went instead to the archbishop of Dublin and Alexander Plunket, ancestor of a noble Irish line.
