Kildare’s Return, Desmond’s Treaty
Archived: 18 October 2026
Abstract
A Year of Competing AuthoritiesIn 1523, Ireland was not governed from one secure centre. Henry VIII was lord of Ireland, and a royal administration operated from Dublin, but its reach depended on negotiation with magnates, towns and Gaelic rulers. The year’s events show several overlapping political worlds at work: Piers Butler, earl of Ormond, was lord deputy; Gerald FitzGerald, ninth earl of Kildare, returned from a long enforced stay in England; James FitzGerald, earl of Desmond, looked towards France; and northern dynasties fought and bargained on a scale that the Dublin government could influence but not command.The sharpest significance of