The Silken Thomas Rebellion was one of the most dramatic uprisings in Tudor Ireland, marking a turning point in the struggle between the Irish nobility and English rule. In 1534, a young noble named Thomas Fitzgerald—better known as Silken Thomas—boldly renounced his loyalty to Henry VIII, igniting a rebellion that would end in tragedy. Fueled by misinformation, political rivalries, and growing tensions over English dominance, the revolt initially gained momentum but was ultimately crushed with brutal efficiency.
The execution of Silken Thomas and his family not only dismantled the powerful Fitzgerald dynasty but also paved the way for England’s tightening grip on Ireland. In this deep dive, we explore the causes, battles, and consequences of the Silken Thomas Rebellion, a pivotal moment that shaped Irish history for centuries to come.
Rough transcript of The Doomed Rebellion of Silken Thomas: How One Young Lord Defied Henry VIII and Lost:
In the summer of 1534, there was a young Irish noble named Thomas Fitzgerald who stood before an assembly in St. Mary’s Abbey in Dublin and threw down the sort of state, renouncing his loyalty to Henry VIII. He was 21 years old. Thomas, who was nicknamed Silken Thomas for the elaborate silken fringes his followers wore on their helmets, declared open rebellion against the English crown.
It was a reckless move, but in that moment, he believed he was striking a blow for Ireland, for his family’s legacy, and perhaps even for his own survival. It did not end well. By 1537, Thomas and his five uncles would be executed at Tyburn, the Fitzgerald dynasty would be crushed, and English rule in Ireland would take a new and harsher turn.
But how did it all unravel so quickly? What led this young Irish Lord to gamble everything against Henry VIII and why did they lose? Today we are going to dive into the dramatic story of the Silken Thomas Rebellion, an uprising born out of misinformation, ambition, and the shifting power dynamics between England and Ireland. Let’s get back to Ireland in the 1530s, where a single decision changed the fate of an entire family.
The Fitzgeralds and English Rule in Ireland
To understand why Thomas Fitzgerald’s rebellion was such a seismic moment in Irish history, we need to take a step back and look at the power his family held and the growing tensions that made his revolt almost inevitable. By the early 16th century, Ireland was technically under English rule, but the reality was far messier.
The English controlled Palke, which was a region around Dublin, operated under direct royal authority, but beyond it, Gaelic lords and powerful Anglo-Irish families like the Fitzgeralds ruled with near-complete autonomy. For decades, the English crown had relied on a policy of appointing the most powerful Irish nobles as Lord Deputy of Ireland, a sort of royal governor, to maintain control without having to exert too much direct effort.
More often than not, that position fell to the Fitzgeralds, one of the most dominant families in Ireland. Thomas’s father, Gerald Fitzgerald, 9th Earl of Kildare, had been Lord Deputy on and off for much of Henry VII and Henry VIII’s reign. He was a powerful, cunning man who was deeply entrenched in Irish politics, but his influence made him enemies, particularly among Henry VIII’s advisors in England who were increasingly suspicious of the Fitzgeralds’ loyalty.
Thomas Wolsey, and later Thomas Cromwell, saw Kildare as unreliable, too close to the Irish clans, too independent, possibly even treasonous. Things came to a head in 1534. By this point, Henry VIII was in the middle of his break with Rome, making England’s control over Ireland even more crucial. The last thing Henry wanted was a powerful Irish nobleman who might align himself with Catholic Europe against him.
On top of that, Kildare had enemies within Ireland itself, rival families like the Butlers, led by Piers Butler, Earl of Ormond, who were eager to see the Fitzgeralds fall. That year, Gerald Fitzgerald was summoned to England, supposedly to answer charges of mismanagement. Whether Henry VIII truly intended to execute him is unclear, but what is certain is that once Kildare was in London, he was stripped of his authority and thrown into the Tower.
Back in Ireland, Thomas, still in his early twenties, was left in charge as Acting Lord Deputy. And then everything fell out of control. It’s the summer of 1534, Thomas Fitzgerald is in a very precarious position. His father, Gerald Fitzgerald, has been summoned to England under suspicious circumstances.
Thomas is barely 21 years old and he’s left to govern Ireland in his place. It was a daunting responsibility, but at first Thomas seemed willing to play by the rules. He had been trained for leadership, raised in the world of Anglo-Irish politics, And he knew that his family’s power rested on balancing loyalty to the English crown with the realities of ruling a volatile land.
The Spark: Misinformation and Rising Tensions
But then came the rumors, the whispers, that his father had been executed in the Tower of London. It’s unclear exactly how Thomas first heard this supposed news. But in a period where misinformation could spread as fast as a messenger’s horse, it didn’t take long for panic to set in. If the rumors were true, it meant that the Fitzgeralds were finished.
Gerald Fitzgerald had been the glue holding their influence together, and if Henry had disposed of him, Thomas would likely be next. The logical move would have been to wait for confirmation, to gather intelligence before acting. But Thomas was young and impulsive, and he made a fatal miscalculation.
On June 11, 1534, he rode into Dublin at the head of 140 horsemen, dressed in full battle attire, and he entered St. Mary’s Abbey, the stronghold of the English administration. Before a stunned audience of officials and noblemen, he dramatically renounced his allegiance to Henry. He declared himself the true ruler of Ireland, proclaiming his defiance of English oppression. Whether he truly believed his father was dead or simply using it as a justification for rebellion is uncertain, but once he had spoken, there was no turning back.
The rebellion quickly gathered momentum. Many Irish lords, especially those with grievances against English rule, saw an opportunity to shake off foreign control and rally to Thomas’s side. His forces swelled as Gaelic clans joined him, seeing the Fitzgeralds as their best chance to resist Tudor encroachment.
His followers saw him not just as a noble in revolt, but as a figurehead for Irish independence. And though the rebellion had been sparked by a misunderstanding, it was also fueled by deeper resentments against Henry VIII’s increasing demands, against English administrators who treated Irish lords as second class rulers, and against the creeping influence of the Protestant Reformation.
But if Thomas expected a quick victory, he had underestimated just how seriously Henry and his advisors would take his challenge. This rebellion was happening at the same time Henry was breaking with the Pope and asserting his authority as the head of the Church of England. From the English perspective, this was a dangerous act of rebellion.
Escalation: The Rebellion Gains Momentum
This was more than just some kind of family feud. This had to be crushed and soon. The full weight of the Tudor military power would come bearing down on Ireland. Now at first it seemed like Silken Thomas might actually pull the whole thing off. After declaring his rebellion in June, he launched an assault on Dublin Castle, the administrative heart of English power in Ireland.
Though he failed to take the castle itself, his forces ravaged the surrounding city, asserting control over much of the Palke, the area around Dublin that was still firmly under English rule. English officials, taken by surprise, were forced to barricade themselves inside the castle, desperately waiting for reinforcements from across the Irish Sea.
Thomas had the numbers. His forces swelled as Irish lords joined him, many seeing this as their best chance to push back against English control. But his rebellion wasn’t just a clean military campaign. It became a bloody and chaotic conflict, marked by massacres and, of course, always shifting alliances.
Thomas men slaughtered loyalist settlers and attacked English garrisons, while Henry’s forces, once they arrived, retaliated with equal brutality. Among the most shocking moments came in July 1534, when Thomas forces captured John Alen, the Archbishop of Dublin. Alen had been trying to flee to England, but his ship was forced ashore by bad weather.
When he was captured, he pleaded for his life, claiming he was only an administrator and not a military threat. It might have saved him, if not for a horrible miscommunication. Thomas allegedly ordered his men not to kill the Archbishop, but by the time the message got through, Alan had already been hacked to death. The murder of a high ranking churchman horrified many and turned the public opinion against Thomas, even among some of his supporters.
Turning Point: The Arrival of Sir William Skeffington
The real turning point though came in early 1535, with the arrival of Sir William Skeffington, Henry VIII’s new Lord Deputy of Ireland. Skeffington had been sent to do one thing, crush the rebellion, no matter the cost, and he wasted no time.
Using heavy artillery, something rarely seen in Irish conflicts at the time, Skeffington began to systematically batter Fitzgerald strongholds. The most significant target was Maynooth Castle, the Fitzgerald’s seat of power and a very formidable fortress. In March 1535, after a short but devastating siege, Maynooth fell to English cannon fire.
The castle’s defenders, who had believed they would be offered mercy if they surrendered, were executed en masse in what became known as the Maynooth Pardon. The shocking betrayal sent a chilling message. No quarter would be given to rebels. With Maynooth lost and his forces dwindling, Thomas rebellion began to unravel.
One by one, his allies abandoned him, seeing the writing on the wall. By August of 1535, a little over a year after the whole thing started, Thomas was on the run. His power was broken. Some sources suggest that he might have been betrayed by his own men, others say that he surrendered voluntarily. Either way, he was somehow handed over to the English authorities, believing that Henry VIII might still show him mercy.
After all, he was still young, a nobleman, and had once been a loyal servant of the crown. Perhaps there was a chance to negotiate. He was wrong. After his surrender in August 1535, he was taken to England in chains and imprisoned in the tower. For nearly two years he lingered there, his fate uncertain.
Perhaps at some point he believed that Henry might still spare him. After all, noblemen, even rebellious ones, were sometimes ransomed or allowed to live under house arrest. But Henry had no intention of showing mercy. Silken Thomas had defied the crown at a moment when Henry’s was consolidating power as Supreme Head of the Church of England.
This was also right around the time of the Pilgrimage of Grace, of killing Anne Boleyn. Henry was not in a very merciful mood. He needed to send a message that defying the Tudor state, especially in Ireland, would not be tolerated.
On February 3rd, 1537, Thomas Fitzgerald, he was only 24 years old, was led to Tyburn, the infamous execution site in London. He was hanged, drawn, and quartered, the brutal punishment reserved for traitors. Normally, noblemen would receive just death by beheading, but no, he received the full horrors of a traitor’s death. But his death was just one part of the Crown’s systemic dismantling of the Fitzgerald family. Henry VIII was determined to wipe out the Fitzgerald lineage entirely.
Five of Thomas uncles, Sir Richard, Sir John, Sir James, Sir Oliver, and Sir Walter Fitzgerald, were also arrested and executed alongside him. This was super unusual. Even when noble families fell from grace, some members were often spared. But in this case, Henry ensured there would be no Fitzgerald resurgence.
Aftermath: The Legacy of the Rebellion
The once mighty dynasty that had ruled Ireland for generations was now shattered. With Thomas dead and his uncles executed, the Fitzgerald lands were confiscated and their allies were either executed, exiled, or forced into submission. The family’s vast network of power, built over centuries, was dismantled almost overnight.
The rebellion had not only failed, it had given Henry the perfect excuse to tighten his grip on Ireland in a way no English king had done before. For centuries, England had ruled Ireland through powerful Anglo-Irish noble families. Essentially, outsourcing governance to local lords who acted as intermediaries.
But Thomas Rebellion shattered that model. Henry VIII no longer trusted the great Irish families to keep order. Instead, he began moving to direct rule, a process that would eventually lead to the full Tudor conquest of Ireland. I actually did an episode about maybe 8 or 9 years ago on the Tudors in Ireland. Check that out.
In 1541, just a few years after Thomas rebellion, Henry declared himself the King of Ireland, replacing the old feudal style Lordship of Ireland. This marked the beginning of a much harsher, more centralized form of English rule, one that would see increased military campaigns, plantation settlements, and the gradual erosion of Irish autonomy.
Though Silken Thomas rebellion ended in disaster, it was far from the last act of resistance against English rule. If anything, it set the stage for later Irish uprisings, including the Desmond Rebellions of 1569-1573, and then the Nine Years’ War from 1593-1603. The Fitzgerald Rebellion became an early warning sign of the growing tensions between England and Ireland, tensions that would continue for centuries.
Now, ironically, despite Henry’s ruthless efforts, the Fitzgerald family did not vanish entirely. The last surviving son of Gerald Fitzgerald, 10th Earl of Kildare, escaped execution as a child and eventually returned to Ireland, though his family would never regain the same level of power.
Today, Silken Thomas is remembered both as a reckless young noble and an early symbol of Irish resistance to English domination. His rebellion may have been doomed from the start, but it did mark a turning point in the long and often bloody history between England and Ireland.
And with that, we close the chapter on Silken Thomas and the Fitzgerald Rebellion, but if there’s one thing Tudor history teaches us, it’s that no rebellion, no matter how doomed, ever truly fades away. So check out that episode I did on the English in Ireland for more details on how things turned out for the English in Ireland. It’s like very aptly named.
Heather Teysko is the creator, writer, and producer of The Renaissance English History Podcast, the original Tudor history podcast, started in 2009. She's been writing about history online for over 25 years, since her first site on Colonial American history became number one in history on Yahoo in 1998. In 2019 she created Tudorcon, which is now a yearly event, in addition to writing books, and running TudorFair.com - a whimsical Tudor Merch shop.
She has been passionate about Tudor England since she first read Alison Weir's The Six Wives of Henry VIII 30 years ago, and subsequently moved to London after college to spend her time immersed in Tudor history (how exciting when she got to interview Alison for the first time!). In addition to history, she is passionate about travel, and has lived in 3 countries and 4 states (not counting her perpetual state of confusion), and her family (who help her host her YouTube channel occasionally).
