Kildare, Thomas Fitzgerald, 10th earl of

Kildare, Thomas Fitzgerald, 10th earl of, 1513–37, Irish nobleman, called Silken Thomas. When his father, the 9th earl and lord deputy of Ireland, was summoned to London on charges of maladministration in 1534, Thomas became vice deputy. The same year, hearing the rumor that his father had been executed (he actually died later in the Tower of London), he renounced his allegiance to King Henry VIII and rose in rebellion. Thomas was excommunicated for the murder of his enemy, the archbishop of Dublin. The rebellion was crushed the following year, and Thomas eventually surrendered and was hanged in London with five of his uncles.