Gerald FitzGerald, 11th Earl of Kildare

The League came to nothing, however, after the principal members were badly defeated in modern-day County Monaghan following a raid into The Pale in August 1539.

[2] FitzGerald escaped Ireland with a few loyal servants and was protected from King Henry VIII and his agents by both Francis I of France and Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire.

From there, he then moved on to Rome, and for three years studied under the guidance of his kinsman, Reginald Cardinal Pole, later Lord Archbishop of Canterbury.

[7] In his last years although technically a free man he was forbidden to leave London, save that he was permitted to take his seat in the Parliament of Ireland which met in Dublin during April–May 1585.

[6] According to legend, his ghost returns to Kilkea Castle every seventh year, mounted on a silver-shod white charger.

[10] Mabel died in 1610, much troubled in her last years by a lawsuit brought by her granddaughter Lettice, claiming that the Earl's will had been fraudulently altered.