Leixlip and St. Catherine's. Silken Thomas.

XI. - Leixlip and St. Catherine’s. Silken Thomas.

Leixlip is another boundary of Lucan. A gate lodge of the Castle is the last house on this side of the district. Leixlip is a compound of two Scandinavian words, Lax and Klaup, hence Saltus Salmonis or the Salmon Leap. From Saltus the barony is called North Salt. It was originally a boundary of the Scandinavian kingdom of Dublin. Strongbow made a grant of the manor of Leixlip in 1169. In 1219 a carucate of its land, probably about one hundred, acres, was enfeoffed to the Prior of St. Catherine’s to maintain six chaplains, who were to pray for the souls of all his *(i.e., *Hereford’s) progenitors.

The Castle, which is now possessed by Mr. William Mooney, is historic. King John slept here, where the King’s room is preserved. Here Robert Bruce, the victor of Bannockburn, and his brother Edward stopped in the year 1317 for four days. Concerning this visit we read in Moore’s “History of Ireland” “Nor is it a slight addition to the interest of that romantic spot, to be able to fancy that the heroic Bruce, surrounded by his companions in arms, had once stood beside its beautiful waterfall, and wandered, perhaps, through its green glen.” After unsuccessfully laying siege to Dublin, and on their way from Castleknock to Naas, here, where the waters of the Rye and Liffey mingle, where the salmon sport, as if inebriated with the loveliness of nature, they rested to refresh themselves in a scene of exceptional and wondrous beauty which doubtless inspired them with fresh courage and loftier motives to fight for the freedom of a country so fair.

Leixlip Castle is linked inseparably with the name of Silken Thomas and the Geraldines. In 1496 Henry VII. gave Gerald, the eighth Earl of Kildare, the manor of Leixlip with its appurtenances on the occasion of the Earl’s marriage with his second wife, Dame Elizabeth Saints John.

His first wife was Alison, daughter of Sir Rowland Eustace, of Harristown, Co. Kildare. She had one son, Gerald, who became the ninth Earl of Kildare, and six daughters. On 22nd November, 1495, she died of a broken heart, on account of her husband’s captivity and his sufferings in a British prison. The issue of his marriage with Dame Elizabeth was seven sons only, who on their mother’s death inherited Leixlip. On the death of his two elder brothers Sir James was owner of Leixlip. It was about this time Silken Thomas, his nephew, and the son of the ninth earl, unfurled the standard of rebellion. Dr. Cromer was an Englishman. On the nomination of the King he was promoted to the See of Armagh. As Archbishop and Primate he showed, for a time, great zeal and consistency in the discharge of the duties of his high office. When Parliament sanctioned the Act of Royal Supremacy he was uncompromising and fearless. Summoning the suffragans and provincial clergy, he exhorted them to stand unflinchingly to the authority of the Holy See, and anathematized all who acknowledged the royal supremacy. But human respect for the King, to whom he owed his appointment; the example of his fellow-countrymen in England, who renounced the faith of their fathers at the bidding of their adulterous monarch; and pusillanimity at the thoughts of the brave resistance of the Irish chieftains, staggered his faith. In a consistory held on the 13th July, 1539, he was suspended from his primacy on account of suspicion of heresy. It is believed he voluntarily resigned, as Dr. Wauchop, his substitute, was Archbishop of Armagh towards the close of 1540. In 1536, by an Act of Resumption, 28th of Henry VIII., the King seized Leixlip from The Fitzgerald, and vested it in himself “for that the blood of the Geraldines is corrupted towards the Crown of England.” On his way to Windsor, Silken Thomas was taken and committed to the Tower. He and his five uncles were attainted by the Irish Parliament, and on the 3rd February, 1537, Silken Thomas and his five uncles were executed at Tyburn.

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