Come Capture a Castle at Clonmore c.1534
from the book "Come Capture Castles" by Victor Hadden
Not far from Hacketstown, in the east of County Carlow, can be
found the old castle of Clonmore. Of all the castles of County
Carlow (and in the fifteenth century, there were at least one
hundred and fifty) none has more impressive remains than that of
the "Castrum de Clonmore". Dr. Leask comments that it is "much
ruined, but still retains some windows of thirteenth century
type, trefoil-pointed lights in pairs". It has stood where it
now stands for a period of at least six hundred years - and yet
there is remarkably little to show for it on history's pages. It
is clear, however, that in the first half of the sixteenth
century, and possibly for long before, this old castle belonged
to, and was controlled by, the Fitzgeralds, Earls of Kildare.
The name of Fitzgerald is one of the greatest in all Irish
history. In common with many of the Normans who came to Ireland
in the twelfth century, they could trace their origins back to a
common ancestor in the person of the beautiful Nesta, Princess
of Wales.
Nesta must have been one of the most ravishing beauties of all
time. Even in the company of Helen of Troy, Cleopatra of Egypt,
or the Queen of Sheba herself, she could have tossed her pretty
head and asked with confidence:-
-
Mirror, mirror on the wall,
-
who is the fairest one of all?
In 1095, she married
Gerald of Windsor, Constable of Pembroke Castle in Wales, but
sometime afterwards, her cousin, Owen, fell in love with her.
Owen was not only a notable lady-killer, but a man-eater of a
man! The facts, as recorded by history, speak for themselves,
for Owen surprised Pembroke Castle by night and, in order to
gain admission into the room where Nesta and Gerald were, he set
the castle on fire. Nesta pulled up a floorboard and let her
husband down into a drain to effect his escape, leaving, it
would seem, his beautiful young wife alone with Owen - her
cousin after all!
So Owen carried her off and Gerald, who was described as "a
loyal and prudent man", had to go to war to recover not only his
wife, but his sons!
After a time, Nesta rejoined Gerald, who died in about the year
1136, and if so, Nesta must by then have been at least fifty
years of age. And yet, either before or after, she was the wife
or mistress of Stephen, Constable of Cardigan, and she had also
been the mistress of Henry I.
Famous Soldiers
Seven of her sons became lords of Cantreds in South Wales, and
from her, by various fathers, descended some of the most famous
soldiers who came with Strongbow to conquer Ireland. Her
children by Gerald were William Fitzgerald (her eldest son, and
father of Raymond Fitzgerald); David, later, Bishop of St.
David's, and two other sons. By Stephen, Nesta was mother of
Robert Fitzstephen, and by Henry I, of Henry. She was also
mother of several other sons and daughters - some, at least, of
them by other lovers.
William Fitzgerald, Nesta's eldest son by her proper husband,
had a son of his own (Nesta's grandson) who enjoyed the odd name
of Odo, and since his home was at Carew in Wales, he was known
as "Odo de Carew". Indeed, the same applies to many of his
cousins, and hence it was that the surname "Carew" entered Irish
history with the first Norman invaders. Many of Nesta's sons and
grandsons, Fitzgeralds, Fitzstephens, Fitzhenrys and especially
Raymond le Gros, were great soldiers and fighting men - and all
of them were much more Welsh in their origins than is commonly
realised. As Professor Curtis wrote in his "History of
Ireland":-
"In
Wales, they could conquer as widely as their swords, carry on
private war, invade the Welsh mountaineers and divide the spoil
among the Barons. This was to be their spirit in Ireland. But it
was something the Gael could understand, and such men were to
become, before long, almost as Irish as the Irish. The feudal
class lived also in the tradition of the minstrels and the great
chansons de geste of Charlemagne, Arthur and Godfrey; it was no
great step for them to delight in the music, language and
ancient epics of Ireland. Nationalism was scarcely known to
these men, who had come over a century ago as Frenchmen, and had
not yet become English.
"Adaptability was their genius and, proud as they were of their
own blood, speech and traditions, they were ready to treat as
equals any race that they could respect, and freely to
intermarry with it. In Wales, they had absorbed Welsh blood, and
doubtless knew something of the Celtic speech. In Ireland, the
first generation of them were only too ready to make happy
marriages with Irish princesses."
And so, from the
twelfth century, for hundreds of years, the Fitzgerald family
was one of the most influential in Irish history. The greatest
of them all was Garret More, the eighth and "Great Earl of
Kildare". He was Deputy Governor of Ireland from 1481 for most
of the rest of his life. Early in the fifteen hundreds, he took
possession of the great castle of Clonmore, and not only
renovated it, but enlarged and extended it.
The Geraldines
At this period, the power of the Geraldines was at its height,
and extended over not only Kildare and Carlow, but most of
Leinster. Their strength was based on affection and loyalty as
well as on force, and an official state document reported that
the "English Pale be so affectionate to the Geraldines for
kindred, marriage, fostering and adherence, that they covet more
to see a Geraldine to reign and triumph, than to see God come
among them".
But if so, for this very reason, they had rivals and enemies at
court, and especially the House of Ormonde, and these conspired
and whispered against them. To paraphrase Shakespeare, it was
again the old, old story of -
"He was my friend, faithful and just to me, But Ormonde says he
was ambitious; And Ormonde is an honourable man."
And so, after the death of the Great Earl of Kildare, when he
was succeeded by Gerald Oge, the Ninth Earl, the English
monarchy began to take a firmer hand in Irish affairs by
imposing a policy of "surrender and regrant". This was effected
through a stronger council and a more effective Lord Deputy
whose aim was to restore and recover "the kings decayed rents
and embezzled lands in Ireland".
In
1534, Gerald Oge was recalled for the last time to London and
lodged in the Tower. Before leaving, he appointed as his deputy
his eldest son, Thomas, known to the Irish and to history as
"Silken Thomas", because of the rich garments worn both by
himself and his bodyguard, and perhaps also, because of his
distinguished and courtly manners. Silken Thomas was then a
handsome and attractive youth of twenty-one.
The wise old Earl realised the dangers of the times and the
treacheries that were abroad. He had warned his son to be guided
by the advice of the council. It was to no avail. The
pro-English factions, led by the Butlers of Kilkenny and
Clogrennan, who looked eagerly for the overthrow of the Earls of
Kildare, spread a rumour that Gerald Oge had been killed in the
Tower of London, and that his son's life would also be taken.
Inflamed with rage at this apparent treachery, Thomas, an
inexperienced and fiery young man, rode at the head of his
followers into Dublin, and before the council his father had
urged him to respect and obey, he formally renounced his
allegiance to the king, surrendered his sword of state, and
proclaimed a rebellion.
Excommunicated
The rising that followed had little military significance, but
Archbishop Allen of Dublin was murdered, with the result that
Thomas was excommunicated by the Church. In 1534, the largest
English army seen in Ireland for many years was sent to occupy
Dublin, and Silken Thomas was proclaimed both accursed and also
a traitor. The unhappy Earl of Kildare now died in the Tower of
London, some said of despair; and the Butlers of Ossory and
Ormonde, the Dullough and Clogrennan rose up in arms to take
their long awaited vengeance on their traditional rivals in
Carlow, Clonmore, Kildare and northwards to Maynooth.
All
that winter of 1534, Thomas Fitzgerald ravaged the border
country between Carlow and Kildare, in Meath and Offaly, and
southwards towards Ossory. For a while, he made a truce with the
Butlers, but it did not last for long. Early in the following
year, the new lord deputy stormed the Geraldine Stronghold at
Maynooth Castle, and many of the garrison were put to the sword.
Lord Thomas now tried to rally his supporters but, at last, had
to retreat to Thomond, intending to sail to Spain. Changing his
mind, and unprepared to accept defeat, even in a forlorn cause,
he spent some months in raids against the English Army on the
borders of the Pale. He finally surrendered unconditionally to
Lord Grey in August 1535.
He was now sent to London and placed in the Tower where he was
soon joined by no less than five of his uncles, some of whom had
been seized with injustice and with treachery. These six
Geraldines were hanged together at Tyburn early in 1537. Deputy
Lord Grey had pleaded in vain for the life of the unfortunate
and ill-fated Silken Thomas, but he was not heeded - for Henry,
in his wrath, was determined to extinguish, if he could, the
whole Geraldine race. Thus ended, at the early age of
twenty-four, the life of the colourful, debonair tenth Earl of
Kildare.
And so it was that the Butlers helped to undermine and overthrow
the great house of Fitzgerald, and thus opened up the way to the
Tudor Reconquest of Ireland which was soon to follow. Not by any
means for the first time in history, the frontier of the bitter
conflict for supremacy in Ireland was in the area which lies
between the counties of Carlow and Kilkenny to the south, and
Kildare and the Pale to the north; and at Clonmore, the massive
old castle once more changed hands. In 1538, it was granted to
Sir Piers Butler, the eighth Earl of Ormond, for services
rendered to the Crown during the late rebellion of Silken
Thomas, its former lord.
