to it for food, and its inhabitants almost perished from starvation. John Deythyke, a priest, wrote sarcastically to a friend in the autumn of 1533, that although it was the custom to refrain from meat on Wednesdays as well as Fridays, provisions were so scarce that people had become more devout still, and abstained also on Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. ‘This is a very sore abstenaunce ... the country is so quiett that they dare nott ryde one myle owte of the towne, to by any maner of vytteyles; and they make there complaynt to the Deputie and the wynde hath blowen hym soo in the erys that he can nott here them. But yt is a comon sayinge “whoo is so defe as he that lyst not to here[327].”’ Things went on from bad to worse, and finally John Alen, Master of the Rolls in Ireland, was sent over by the Council there to report Kildare’s doings at the English Court, and further to submit to the King a set of articles for the reformation of the abuses which had become prevalent in the country[328]. Alen finally succeeded in procuring Kildare’s recall; and the Deputy arrived in London in April, 1534, having left his eldest son, Lord Thomas Fitzgerald, in his place. Efforts were made to induce the young man to come to England also; and when he persistently refused to put himself into the King’s hands, his father was arrested and sent to the Tower. These vigorous measures, according to Chapuys, were due to Cromwell; they were the beginnings of his policy of subjugation[329].