the Normans, Clandeboye, to step into the power vacuum and take control over large parts of eastern Ulster. The dominant Gaelic and Norman-Irish leaders were in tune with their contemporary peers of the Middle Ages in terms of education, international trade, and diplomacy. The O'Neills had strong family relationships with the FitzGerald dynasty, both the Earls of Kildare and Earls of Desmond; the Earl of Pembroke via de Clare's marriage to the Irish house of Diarmuid, King of Leinster; and the MacDonnells, Bissetts, MacLeans, and Campbells. In 1171, King Henry II of England came to Ireland to remove the authority of the English lords in Ireland. He met the leading Irish kings and received the pledge of fealty from them. During the Middle Ages, the O'Neills were active politically and militarily throughout Ireland, occasionally sending nobility to fight within Ireland and in campaigns in Europe. From 1312 to 1318, their kings were staunch supporters of King Robert the Bruce and his brother Edward Bruce. They sent troops and supported Edward in his attempt to become King of Ireland in 1315. In the 14th century Edward III of England called Tyrone "the Great O'Neill" and invited him to join a campaign against the Scots, and another O'Neill prince accompanied the English king on a crusade to the Holy Land. In 1394 Richard II of England deemed King Niall Mór "Le Grand O'Neill" upon a friendly hosting of the two kings. In 1493, Henry VII of England referred to Henry O'Neill, King of Tyrone, as "the Chief of the Irish Kings" and gave him a gift of livery. The O'Neills' independent stature within Ulster began to change with the ascent of King Henry VIII to the throne in England in 1509. Soon after he took the English throne, Henry decided to grasp Ireland via a reputed papal bull that claimed to grant the lordship of Ireland to English kings. This was spurred by the 1537 Rising of Silken Thomas Fitzgerald. The O'Neills supported their FitzGerald dynasty cousins in that rebellion and had to maneuver politically to keep the English from toppling their power in Ulster when the rising failed. Henry began a policy to reduce the kings in Ireland to the same rank and structure as the English nobility. In the policy called Surrender and regrant Irish monarchs were forced to surrender their titles and independent lands to Henry, and in return