Gerald FitzGerald, 8th Earl of Kildare, succeeded to the earldom at the death of his father in 1477 and came to be known as the “Great Earl.” Ireland being under England’s control at this time, FitzGerald served as Lord Deputy of Ireland from 1478 to 1492; then, after a hiatus of two years, when the position was held by an Englishman (Henry, 4th Baron Grey of Cadnor), he served again from 1496 until his death in 1513. Like others in his family, FitzGerald was an ardent supporter of the Yorkist dynasty during the Wars of the Roses, serving both Edward IV and Richard III and acting as lord deputy to Edward’s son Richard, Duke of York. When Henry VII came to power, FitzGerald supported the claims of the pretender Lambert Simnel and attended the Dublin ceremony where Simnel was crowned as “Edward VI,” but he later submitted to Henry after Simnel’s loss at the Battle of Stoke. When he later supported the second pretender, Perkin Warbeck, he was dismissed from his office as lord deputy. Due to disputes with his enemies in Ireland, he was attainted by the Irish Parliament and spent two years as a prisoner in the Tower of London, during which time his countess, Alison FitzEustace, died. He was restored in 1496 when Henry sought to secure FitzGerald in order to prevent Ireland from becoming a hotbed of Yorkist activity against the Tudor dynasty. After FitzGerald’s defiance of the archbishop of Cashel, an observer exclaimed, ''All Ireland cannot govern this Earl," to which Henry replied, "Then let this Earl govern all Ireland.'' Henry approved a marriage between FitzGerald and the king’s kinswoman Elizabeth St. John and granted him land and, in return, FitzGerald became a staunch ally of the king and was able to subdue the north of Ireland. In 1504, after he helped put down Irish rebels at the Battle of Knockdoe, he was made a Knight of the Garter. He remained lord deputy of Ireland into the reign of Henry VIII and died in 1513.