Fynes Moryson described her as "able to goe on foote four or five miles to the market towne, and used weekly soe to doe in her last years." It is thought that she died in 1604, aged about 100. The ordinary account of her life-of her being born in 1464; of her dancing with Richard III.; of her visiting James I., landing at Bristol and walking to London in her 139th year; of her losing her life by falling from a tree when gathering nuts; and other remarkable occurrences-is effectually disposed of by writers in Notes and Queries, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Series, and an article in the Dublin Review for February 1862. It is questionable whether any of her eleven reputed portraits are genuine-most being without doubt portraits of Rembrandt's mother. 11

101 254

Desmond, James, 13th Earl, grandson of 12th Earl, called the "Court Page," having been hostage for his grandfather at the court of Windsor. On the earldom becoming vacant in 1534, "the King loaded him with honours, and fitted out ships to accompany him to the Irish shores, and provided him with a number of men who were ready to stand by him against those who were inclined to dispute his title to the patrimonial honours and inheritance." 147 His title to the earldom was disputed by his grand-uncle, Sir John, who being supported by a large faction, was de facto 13th Earl. This Sir John died about Christmas 1536. The "Court Page" did not long enjoy his honours, for he was murdered at Leacan Sgail in Kerry, by his cousin, Maurice an Totane, son of his late opponent, 19th March 1540. He married a daughter of his grand-uncle, Cormac Oge MacCarthy. 52 147 147 216

Desmond, Sir James, 14th Earl, son of Sir John, de facto 13th Earl, succeeded on his cousin's murder in 1540. He is called by English writers the "Traitor Earl." In 1538 he had written to the Pope, declaring that an army of 30,000 Spaniards would ensure the conquest of Ireland, proposing that Ireland should be annexed to the Holy See, and offering to undertake the government as viceroy, paying a revenue to Paul of 100,000 ducats. The expedition would be costly, but the expenses would fall neither on his Holiness nor on the Emperor. Desmond, with armed privateers, would seize and deliver into the hands of the Pope the persons of a sufficient number of the heretical English, whose ransoms would defray the necessary outlay."140 In July 1539 we find him in open arms against the English power, in conjunction with O'Neill, but he was soon overcome by Viscount Thurles,

who seized upon his castle at Lough Gur. Having surrendered and obtained letters from the Lord-Deputy, he sailed from Howth in 1542, repaired to London, made submission to Henry VIII., was kindly received, reinstated in his ancient patrimony, and sent back with the titles of Treasurer of Ireland and President of Munster. He is afterwards said to have "lived in honour and prosperity," until he died at Askeaton, 14th October 1558. He was there buried in the Franciscan Friary. The 14th Earl was four times married-to daughters of Lord Fermoy, Lord Ely O'Carroll, 8th Earl of Ormond, and Donald MacCarthy Mor. [See also FITZMAURICE, JAMES.] 52 140 147 147 216

Desmond, Gerald, 15th Earl, son of preceding by his second wife, succeeded on the death of his father in 1558. He is known to English writers as the "Rebel Earl," or "Ingens Rebellibus Exemplar." "Soon after his father's death," says O'Daly, "surrounded by a noble retinue of 100 youths, all of honourable birth, he proceeded to do homage to the Queen, by whom he was graciously received, and restored to all his ancestral honours by a new patent." Sir Thomas Desmond, his elder half-brother, by his father's first marriage, afterwards annulled as contracted within degrees of consanguinity, was for a short time recognized as Earl. Gerald was, however, chosen by the septs of Desmond, and his claim was eventually allowed by Government. (Thomas took no part with his brothers in the succeeding convulsions, and died at his castle of Connagh, near Youghal, 18th January 1595.) The Earl sat in a parliament held in Dublin in 1559. For many years he was engaged in bloody and aimless feuds with the Butlers and O'Briens. On 15th February 1564 Desmond proceeded to levy imposts on Sir Maurice FitzGerald of Decies, a relative of the Butlers. Sir Maurice applied to the latter for aid, and a battle was fought at Affane, on the Blackwater, two miles south of Cappoquin, where the Earl of Desmond was wounded and made prisoner. While being carried on a litter from the field, one of his captors is said to have tauntingly asked: "Where now is the proud Earl of Desmond?" to which he haughtily rejoined: "Where he ought to be-upon the necks of the Butlers." The Earl appears to have been liberated soon afterwards. Sir Henry Sidney, in his progress through Munster in January 1567, speaks of the Earl as "a man both devoid of judgment to govern, and will to be ruled," and describes his territories as in a wretched plight. "Like as I never

was in a more pleasant country in all my life, so never saw I a more waste and desolate land. Such horrible and lamentable spectacles are there to behold as the burning of villages, the ruin of churches, the wasting of such as have been good towns and castles." He was especially severe against the Earl for the mismanagement of his estates, and being likewise fearful of his strong Catholic proclivities, seized him at Kilmallock, and carried him about in durance the remainder of his progress. The sons of the Earl of Clanricard were also captured in Connaught, and the Lord-Deputy returned to Dublin with his prisoners the 16th April. He had caused numberless malefactors to be executed in the course of his visitation. In October Sidney proceeded to England, bringing with him the Earl of Desmond and his brother Sir John, Hugh O'Neill, the O'Conor Sligo, and other chieftains. The Earl and his brother Sir John were detained captives for six years in the Tower of London, while their cousin FitzMaurice assumed the leadership of the family, and carried on those hostilities against the Government that will be found detailed in his life. After FitzMaurice's submission in 1573, they were set free and received at court. A ship was furnished to convey them to Dublin, where, however, the Earl was detained under an honourable arrest, whilst Sir John was permitted to return to Munster. Before long the Earl managed to escape whilst out hunting near Grangegorman, and although large rewards were offered for his apprehension, he was soon safe amongst his followers in the fastnesses of Desmond. During the O'Neill wars of the following months he remained neutral. In May 1574 the Earl met at Waterford by appointment the Earl of Essex and the Earl of Kildare, and under the protection of a safe conduct returned with them to Dublin. There he was informed that the Queen desired his presence in London; but remembering his former captivity, he made many excuses, and Essex honourably conducted him to the frontiers of the Pale. Shortly afterwards he surrendered Castlemaine and Castlemartyr, which were occupied by English garrisons. In other respects his authority over his feudal principality was left undisturbed, and he passed for a loyal subject. In the autumn of 1575 he proffered Sir Henry Sidney his services against the northern chieftains. In 1576 he was brought into collision with the new President of Munster, Sir William Drury. He protested against the holding of courts within his

palatinate; but finding Drury obdurate, and about proceeding to Tralee to hold a sessions, he made a virtue of necessity, and offered the hospitality of his castle. On approaching Tralee, the President perceived about 800 armed men retiring into the woods. The Countess of Desmond met him outside the town and assured him that her lord had no hostile intention, but that, his visit being unexpected, the forces had assembled for a general hunting. Shortly afterwards Drury seized Sir John of Desmond in Cork, on suspicion of treasonable practices, and sent him under an escort to Dublin. When FitzMaurice landed with the Papal expedition at Smerwick, in 1579, the Earl maintained a semblance of loyalty, and even forwarded to Dublin his cousin's letters. The previous year he had arrested, and handed over to the President, Patrick O'Haly, Bishop of Mayo, and other ecclesiastics, who had landed from Spain. Sir John, who appears to have been liberated, and Sir James, hastened to meet their cousin and his allies. The Lord-Justice, who was in Cork, immediately despatched Henry Davells, Constable of Dungarvan, and Arthur Carter, Provost-Marshal of Munster, to summon the Earl of Desmond and his brothers to attack FitzMaurice and the Spaniards. They were extremely officious and insolent to the Earl, reconnoitred the fort at Smerwick, where FitzMaurice and the Spaniards were entrenched, and were on their way back to Cork, when they were murdered by Sir John in a little inn at Tralee. The atrocity of the deed was aggravated by the fact that Sir John and Davells had been intimate friends. A few days after FitzMaurice's death in August 1579, the Earl met Sir William Drury at Kilmallock, and endeavoured to clear himself from the charge of complicity in his cousin's proceedings. After being kept under arrest for three days, he was liberated on undertaking to send in his only son, James, as a hostage. He received a promise that his lands and tenants should be respected an engagement violated almost as soon as made. Most of the Earl's forces went over to Sir John of Desmond, who took his cousin FitzMaurice's place-the Spanish officers materially assisting in disciplining these irregular levies. Sir William Drury, on the other hand, collected a considerable army, chiefly composed of Catholic Irish. In an engagement that ensued between a portion of these forces and those under Sir John and Sir James, at Springfield, in the south of the County of Tipperary, the latter were successful. Shortly after

wards, on 30th September, Sir William | Drury sickened of the fatigues of the campaign, and died at Waterford, whereupon the command of the royal forces devolved upon Sir Nicholas Malby, who was reinforced by 600 Devonshiremen, landed at Waterford. A fleet also hovered off the coast under the command of Sir John Perrot. Leaving 300 foot and 50 horse at Kilmallock, Malby early in October marched with some 600 of his army to Limerick; then turning south, he encountered and gave battle to Sir John and Sir James with vastly superior forces at Monasteranenagh, two miles from Croom. For a time victory seemed undecided. Malby's lines were twice broken; but ultimately the Desmonds were routed with the loss of Thomas FitzGerald, the Earl's cousin, and some 260 men. The Earl of Desmond and FitzMaurice, Lord of Lixnaw, watched the progress of this engagement from top of Tory Hill, little more than a mile distant, and late in the evening sent to congratulate Malby on his victory. This message was treated with contempt-there being no doubt that the Earl would in any case have congratulated the winning side-and Malby proceeded to lay waste Desmond's territory in the neighbourhood. Askeaton, Rathkeale, and Adare, were given to the flames. On 30th October the Earl of Ormond, acting under Malby, demanded that Desmond should give up the Papal Nuncio (Dr. Saunders), and surrender for the Queen's service the castles of Carrigfoyle and Askeaton. Desmond hesitated; on 2nd November a proclamation was issued declaring him a traitor unless he submitted within twenty days, and the next day the Queen's troops marched into the Earl's palatinate of Kerry, and the Earl of Ormond was constituted governor of all Munster. The vacillating Earl of Desmond was forced to choose a side, and he took the field with his brothers about Christmas 1579. The war in which he now found himself involved, continued the four remaining years of his life. It had already been carried on by his cousin Fitz Maurice and his brothers for nearly six years. For ten years the country was desolated by contentions of the most sanguinary and merciless character. The conclusion of the war found Munster well-nigh depopulated, and the whole of Desmond parcelled out amongst new proprietors. The war had its origin in the effort of Elizabeth to impose English habits and laws, and English religion, upon the people of Munster; in the rapacity of adventurers thirsting for the confiscation of Irish estates; and in the almost inevitable

our

contest between Elizabeth and her Catholic subjects, forced on by the Papal Bull of 1569, which had excommunicated and deposed her. The points at issue were clearly put by the Earl of Desmond himself: "It is so that I and my brother are entered into the defence of the Catholic faith, and the overthrow of our country by Englishmen, which had overthrown the Holy Church, and go about to overrun country, and make it their own, and to make us their bondmen." The Earl was, however, utterly unfit to conduct a war of any kind; no important engagement occurred; and his exploits were never more, in Mr. Richey's words, "than an occasional skirmish or plundering excursion; and he gradually sank into a fugitive, and finally into a mere criminal fleeing from justice. [Between the two parties] the interest or the existence of the mass of the people was wholly disregarded. On the one hand, they were excited by the promises of Spanish invasions, and succour which never arrived [in sufficient force to effect anything]; on the other, they were trampled down and decimated by way of precaution; and thus, from year to year, the plundering and killing went on, until there was nothing left to plunder, and very few to kill." On more than one occasion the Earl nobly refused terms for himself which would involve the surrender of Dr. Saunders, the Papal Legate. In January 1580 two Italian vessels with powder arrived at Dingle, bringing news that he might soon expect other forces from abroad. As spring opened Pelham and Ormond "passed through the rebel counties in two companies, consuming with fire all habitations, and executing the people wherever they found them. Fitz Maurice's widow and her two little girls were discovered by the way, concealed in a cave. Mr. Froude adds: "They are heard of no more, and were probably slain with the rest. The Irish annalists say that the bands of Pelham and Ormond killed the blind and the aged, women and children, sick and idiots, sparing none. Pelham's own words too closely confirm the charge." In August 1580 Sir James of Desmond was captured and taken to Cork. There he was hanged and quartered, and his head spiked over one of the city gates. In September, 700 Spaniards and Italians under Sebastian San Josef were landed from four vessels in Smerwick harbour. They conveyed arms for 5,000 men, together with large sums of money and promises of further aid. The fort of Oilen-an-Oir, at Smerwick, garrisoned by Fitz Maurice and his party the previous year, was again occupied, repaired,