Church and society in County Kildare, c.1480–1547

Mary Ann Lyons

This book investigates the socio-economic, ecclesiastical and cultural world of Garret Mor and Garret Oge Fitzgerald, 8th and 9th earls of Kildare. A profile of the role of the Church in society provides the backdrop to understanding the part played by both earls as great magnates in shaping their late medieval world. The 1530s brought abrupt and decisive changes to the lives of the county's population arising from the Geraldine rebellion in 1534–5 and the suppression of the monastic houses which followed it. The immediate impact of these changes forms the core of the second part of the book. The distribution of the county's dissolved monastic property reshaped the nature of the county elite and saw the beginnings of modern Kildare.