Gerald (Fitzgerald) FitzGerald
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Gerald FitzJames (Fitzgerald) FitzGerald (1533 - 1583)

Gerald FitzJames "15th Earl of Desmond, the Rebel Earl" FitzGerald formerly Fitzgerald
Born in Irelandmap
Ancestors ancestors
Son of and
Brother of [half], , , , and [half]
Husband of — married 1551 (to 2 Jan 1565) in Irelandmap
Husband of — married before 11 Jan 1568 (to 1583) in Irelandmap
Descendants descendants
Father of and
Died at about age 50 in Tralee, County Kerry, Irelandmap
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Preceded by
James FitzJohn Fitzgerald		 15th Earl of Desmond
1558-1583		 Succeeded by
title forfeited

Contents

Biography

Notables Project
Gerald (Fitzgerald) FitzGerald is Notable.

Known by English writers as "the Rebel Earl", Gerald was the last official Earl of Desmond, although there were 2 more pretenders: his son James (died 1601) and his nephew James FitzThomas (who died 1608 in the Tower of London).

Gerald became 15th Earl upon the death of his father in 1558, and was famous for leading the bloody Desmond Rebellions, which eventually cost him his life in 1583.

From 1551 to 1565, Gerald was married to his much older 2nd cousin Joan FitzGerald (b.1509), their common ancestor being Thomas, 7th Earl of Desmond. There were no recorded children from this union, which was ostensibly a political marriage to help maintain peace in Ireland: Joan was the mother (from a previous husband) to Gerald's arch-rival Thomas, 10th Earl of Ormond, the same man who eventually procured Gerald's death in 1583[1] and had his head sent to Queen Elizabeth for proof.[2]

All of Gerald's known, legitimate children came from his 2nd marriage, to Ellen Butler of Dunboyne (see Marriages & Children below).

From the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography profile for Gerald, 15th Earl of Desmond, with edits for clarity and context:[3]

  • 1559: Attended by 100 prime gentlemen, he crossed over into England, where he was graciously received by Queen Elizabeth, and confirmed by her (22 June 1559) in all the lands, jurisdictions, seignories, and privileges that were held in times past by his predecessors. Already, during the lifetime of his father, he had become notorious for his turbulent disposition, and for his proneness to private war. In 1560 a dispute arose between him and [his step-son, but of the same age] Thomas Butler, 10th Earl of Ormond, about the prize wines of Youghal and Kinsale, which the latter claimed, and certain debatable lands on the river Suir, into which Desmond swore Ormond had entered by force.
  • The dispute, conducted in the usual Irish fashion, obliged the government to intervene, and the two Earls were accordingly summoned to submit their claims in person to Queen Elizabeth. Ormond alone showed any willingness to obey; but at last, after alleging many frivolous pretexts for his non-compliance, Desmond appeared at court about the beginning of May 1562, attended by a numerous retinue. Being charged before the council with openly defying the law in Ireland, he answered contumaciously, and refusing to apologise was forthwith committed into the custody of the Lord Treasurer. As the Queen wrote to his countess -- Joan FitzGerald, widow of the 9th Earl of Ormond -- this was a slight confinement which would do him no harm, and which the Lord Justice Sir William Fitzwilliam hoped would have the effect of bringing Desmond to his senses. Though soon released, Desmond was not allowed to return to Ireland till the beginning of 1564.
  • In November 1564, Thomas, 10th Earl of Ormond, complained to Lord Burghley William Cecil that Desmond was continually invading his territories, killing the Queen's subjects, and carrying off his cattle, and that in self-defence he must retaliate. The death of Countess Joan, the wife of Desmond, and the mother of Ormond, early in 1565, removed the last restraint on Desmond's conduct, and he entered the Dromana territories of Sir Maurice Fitzgerald, Viscount Decies,[4] with a considerable body of men in order to enforce his claim to certain disputed arrears of rents and services.
  • The Viscount Decies, being anxious to liberate himself from his feudal superior, had meanwhile enlisted the support of the Earl of Ormond who, nothing loathe, under this plausible pretext of maintaining the peace, to revenge himself on his rival, immediately assembled his men and marched southwards. The two armies met at the ford of Affane on the Blackwater; a bloody skirmish followed, known as the Battle of Affane (1st Feb 1565), in which Desmond was wounded in the thigh with a bullet and taken prisoner.

From the book Dromana: The Memoirs of an Irish Family:[5]

  • On the 10th of May, 1579, Sir William Pelham, Lord Justice [of Ireland], called a general assembly of the Munster lords at Limerick. [Thomas, 10th Earl of] Ormond duly appeared, bringing with him White, the Masters of the Rolls; Lords Dunboyne and Power, and Sir James FitzGerald of Decies. Lord Roche and his son Maurice, and Sir Thomas of Desmond came from Cork, followed later by a few others. None of the Western chiefs came, and Pelham, seeing no hopes of more coming, conferred with those who were present. They swore to forego private quarrels, and to band against [Gerald, 15th Earl of] Desmond and his rebel followers.

Rebellion & Death

From The Annals of Ireland:[6]

  • Gerald FitzGerald was an Irish Roman Catholic nobleman who led one of the 3 major Irish rebellions against English rule under the protestant Queen Elizabeth. When he eventually assumed leadership of a Spanish company in Ireland backed by the Pope, and appealed to the Irish lords to join them in defence of Catholicism against the English Protestants, the English response was brutal and devastating. Gerald Fitzgerald was declared an outlaw, ruthlessly hunted down and killed in a skirmish on November 11th 1583, Glenageenty, County Kerry.

Gerald was beheaded and his head sent to England. His faithful followers were, however, able to secret his body until it could be buried in a remote family graveyard. The exact location of the graveyard is difficult to determine, but is believed to be in County Kerry in a "defile" or gorge or narrow passage between two hills or small mountains, in the Cordal townland near Castleisland.[7]

The hiding place may be between Balinard and Mt Eagle, in the current townland of Coum near Kilmurry. The following location would fit the description of the graveyard:

  • [Near the] Fortalice of Ardnagraph built to command and defend it; and lower down the stronger and more important castles of Kilmurry and Lally-Mac-Quodam, all strongholds garrisoned by gentlemen of the Fitzgerald name and race relatives and retainers of the great Earl. In the throat of this defile, lies a little graveyard which seems to have been a peculiar and appropropriated burying place of the Geraldines, for the church and general burial ground of the parish of Kilmurry lies in the lowland immediately below, and the title of Kil-na-n-onaim or the " Church of the Name," verifies the tradition that up to a late period no one who did not bear the name of Fitzgerald had ever been interred there.[7]

Marriages & Children

Gerald's first marriage (childless) was to his 2nd cousin, Joan FitzGerald,[8][9] daughter of James FitzMaurice, 10th Earl of Desmond. Joan had been married twice before; first to James Butler, 9th Earl of Ormond,[10] (8 children) and secondly to notorious Tudor courtier Francis Bryan[11] (no known or surviving issue). Joan outlived her first 2 husbands and died on 2nd January 1565, leaving her 3rd husband Gerald a widower.

Gerald married 2) Eleanor Butler, daughter of Edmund, 1st Baron Dunboyne[12] by whom he had one son and 5 daughters:[13]

  • James FitzGerald (1570-1601)[14] who spent most of his life in prison.[15] After an unsuccessful attempt to recover his inheritance he returned to England where he died.[16]
  • Joan
  • Catherine, who married Daniel O'Brien, 1st Viscount Clare
  • Ellice, who married Sir Valentine Browne, 1st Baronet, ancestor of the Earls of Kenmare
  • Ellen, who married 3 times, lastly to her cousin Edmond Butler, 3rd/13th Baron Dunboyne, and died at a great age in 1660.
  • Margaret

Research Notes

Alternate Names

There are alternate names for this person:

  • The suffix 14th Earl of Desmond is non-traditional and may be too long for the WikiTree suffix.
  • Gerald Fitz James Fitzgerald 14th Earl of Desmond

Sources

  1. ↑ "The long-standing disputes between the houses of Ormond and Desmond, which finally became a bitter feud between Earl [of Ormond] Thomas and Earl [of Desmond] Gerald, and were a principal cause of the downfall and attainder of the Geraldine house, began in 1558 and brought "Black Tom" [Ormond] into prominence as being at once the Crown's unwavering supporter and its assured favourite ... The Presidency of Munster set up in 1570 with Sir John Perrot at its head was a standing menace to Desmond's princely inheritance; while it threatened him, the personal favour of Queen Elizabeth was exerted in Ormond's favour ... As early as 1559 Elizabeth appointed Earl Thomas Lord Treasurer of Ireland as his father had been, and this office he held till his death [in 1614]. When active armed opposition to the royal policy began in the South in 1569, further powers were entrusted to [Ormond]; he was created General of the royal forces in Munster in January 1583 and various commissions of martial law enabled him to prosecute rebels with fire and sword."
  2. ↑ Queen Elizabeth named Thomas (10th Earl of Ormond) as Lord General of the royal army in Munster. Together with the Lord Justice, Sir William Pelham, Ormond invaded Desmond's country. Thomas brought the war to a successful conclusion in November 1583, procuring the capture and beheading of Gerald, Earl of Desmond, his former stepfather. Thomas had Desmond's severed head sent to Elizabeth to give "Her Highness the best token" of the end of the rebellion "and proof of my faithful service."
  3. ↑ https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dictionary_of_National_Biography,_1885-1900/Fitzgerald,_Gerald_(d.1583)
  4. ↑ Sir Maurice FitzGerald and Thomas 10th Earl of Ormond were 1st cousins via their common grandfather Piers, 8th Earl of Ormond
  5. ↑ Dromana: The Memoirs of an Irish Family, by Therese Muir MacKenzie (Therese Villiers Stuart), published 1907 (Dublin: Sealy, Bryers & Walker), p.66:
  6. ↑ The Annals of Ireland : Annals of the Four Masters p:530 eds: Michael O'Clery, Philip MacDermott, B. Geraghty pub:1846
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 A. B. Rowan, The Last Geraldyn Chief of Tralee Castle, (Kerry Magazine May 1854) republished at pp 117-130 of Hickson Mary Agnes, Selections from Old Kerry Records: Historical and Genealogical: with Introductory Memoir, Notes and Appendix, 1872. See also Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquities in Ireland, January 1, 1884, pp 291-3 there is a paper read by Arthur Hill on the Cathedral and other Churches at Ardfert.
  8. ↑ Wikipedia: Joan Fitzgerald, Countess of Ormond
  9. ↑ Joan and Gerald were 2nd cousins, with common great-grandparents Thomas, 7th Earl of Desmond, and Ellice Barry.
  10. ↑ Wikipedia: James Butler, 9th Earl of Ormond
  11. ↑ Wikipedia: Francis Bryan
  12. ↑ Gerald's 2nd wife Eleanor Butler was sister of James, 2nd Baron Dunboyne, who was loyal to the Crown
  13. ↑ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography:
  14. ↑ See here for the Dictionary of Irish Biography profile for James (d.1601), author Terry Clavin (2009):
  15. ↑ "Earl Gerald, killed in 1583, left a son James, born 1571, called "the Tower Earl" who, after a youth spent in captivity in London, was put up by the Queen against the "Súgán Earl" in 1600, but died soon after in November 1601, and so ended the whole line."
  16. ↑ After James' death, the sole remaining pretender to become the next Earl of Desmond was his first cousin, James FitzThomas, The Sugan Earl. In May 1601, Edmund FitzGibbon, 11th White Knight reportedly received a large reward for kidnapping the Súgán (straw or sham) Earl of Desmond on behalf of Queen Elizabeth:
    • It was in a part of Clangibbon, in the wood of Slieve-grot, that the White Knight, toward the end of Queen Elizabeth's reign took the Sugan Earl of Desmond prisoner, for which the Queen gave him a thousand pounds.
See Also:
  • The Complete Peerage Vol.IV, pp.252-254
  • Royal Ancestry by Douglas Richardson Vol. I. p.488




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1571 letter: 15th Earl Desmond to Elizabeth
1571 letter: 15th Earl Desmond to Elizabeth
Earls of Desmond, in order
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Lee-5956 Robin Lee
Fitzgerald-10430 and Fitzgerald-2412 appear to represent the same person because: dates were adjusted based on Wikipedia, no sources had been provided for parents and data on Fitzgerald-10430
posted by Robin Lee

This week's featured connections are American Founders: Gerald is 11 degrees from John Hancock, 13 degrees from Francis Dana, 20 degrees from Bernardo de Gálvez, 15 degrees from William Foushee, 14 degrees from Alexander Hamilton, 18 degrees from John Francis Hamtramck, 14 degrees from John Marshall, 11 degrees from George Mason, 15 degrees from Gershom Mendes Seixas, 14 degrees from Robert Morris, 14 degrees from Sybil Ogden and 13 degrees from George Washington on our single family tree. Login to see how you relate to 33 million family members.

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