ble for any
other person to govern; and the appointment of their rival was a signal
for the revolt of the entire clan, both in Leinster and Munster. The
Butlers were too weak to resist this combination; and inasmuch as they
were themselves always loyal when a Geraldine was in power, and the
Geraldines were disloyal when a Butler was in power, the desire to hush
up the difficulty, and to secure a show of quiet, led to the consistent
preference of the more convenient chief.

There were qualities also in the Kildare family which gave them peculiar
influence, not in Ireland only, but at the English court. Living like
wild Irish in their castle at Maynooth, they appeared in London with the
address of polished courtiers. When the complaints against them became
too serious to neglect, they were summoned to give account of their
conduct. They had only to present themselves before the council, and it
was at once impossible to believe that the frank, humorous, high-minded
gentlemen at the bar could be the monsters who were charged with so
fearful crimes. Their ever-ready wit and fluent words, their show of
bluntness and pretence of simplicity, disarmed anger and dispersed
calumny; and they returned on all such occasions to Ireland more trusted
than ever, to laugh at the folly which they had duped.

[Sidenote: The eighth Earl of Kildare in rebellion against Henry VII.]

[Sidenote: He appears before the council,]

[Sidenote: Who decide that since Ireland cannot govern him, he must
govern Ireland.]

The farce had already continued through two generations at the opening
of the Reformation. Gerald, the eighth earl, was twice in rebellion
against Henry VII. He crowned Lambert Simnel with his own hand; when
Lambert Simnel fell, he took up Perkin Warbeck; and under pretence of
supporting a competitor for the crown, carried fire and sword through
Ireland. At length, when England was quiet, Sir Edward Poynings was sent
to Dublin to put down this new King-maker. He took the earl prisoner,
with some difficulty, and despatched him to London, where he appeared at
the council-board, hot-handed from murder and treason. The king told him
that heavy accusations would be laid to his charge, and that he had
better choose some counsel to plead his cause. The earl looked at him
with a smile of simplicity. "I will choose the ablest in England," he
said; "your Highness I take for my counsel against these false
knaves."[298] The accusations were pro