Gerald Fitzgerald, 15th Earl of Desmond (c. 1533 – 11 November 1583) was an Irish nobleman and leader of the Desmond Rebellions of 1579. Events January 25 - King Henry VIII of England marries Anne Boleyn, his second Queen consort. ... November 11 is the 315th day of the year (316th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 50 days remaining. ... Events August 5 - Sir Humphrey Gilbert establishes first English colony in North America, at what is now St Johns, Newfoundland. ... The Desmond Rebellions occurred in the 1560s, 1570s and 1580s in Munster in southern Ireland. ...

He was the son of James Fitzgerald, 14th Earl of Desmond, by his second wife More O'Carroll. His father had agreed in January 1541, as one of the terms of his submission to Henry VIII of England, to send young Gerald to be educated in England. At the accession of Edward VI proposals to this effect were renewed; Gerald was to be the companion of the young king. Unfortunately for the subsequent peace of Munster these projects were not carried out. The Desmond estates were held by a doubtful title, and claims on them were made by the Butlers, the hereditary enemies of the Geraldines, for James Butler, 2nd Earl of Ormonde had married Lady Joan Fitzgerald, daughter and heiress-general of James Fitzgerald, 10th Earl of Desmond. On Ormonde's death she proposed to marry Gerald Fitzgerald, and eventually did so, after the death of her second husband, Sir Francis Bryan. The effect of this marriage was a temporary cessation of open hostility between the Desmonds and her son, Thomas Butler, 3rd Earl of Ormonde. Henry VIII (28 June 1491 – 28 January 1547) was King of England and Lord of Ireland (later King of Ireland) from 22 April 1509 until his death. ... Edward VI (12 October 1537–6 July 1553) was King of England and King of Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death. ... Alternate uses: See Munster (disambiguation). ... Thomas Butler, 3rd Earl of Ormonde, also known as the 10th earl (1532-1614), a son of James Butler, 2nd Earl of Ormonde, was lord high treasurer of Ireland and a very prominent personage during the latter part of the 16th century. ...

Gerald succeeded to the earidom in 1558; he was knighted by the lord deputy Thomas Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Sussex, and did homage at Waterford. He soon established close relations with his namesake Gerald Fitzgerald, 11th Earl of Kildare (1525–1585), and with Shane O'Neill. In spite of an award made by Sussex in August 1560 regulating the matters in dispute between Ormonde and the Fitzgeralds, the Geraldine outlaws were still plundering their neighbors. Desmond neglected a summons to appear at Elizabeth's court for some time on the plea that he was at war with his uncle Maurice. When he did appear in London in May 1562 his insolent conduct before the privy council resulted in a short imprisonment in the Tower of London. Thomas Radclyffe (or Ratclyffe) 3rd Earl of Sussex (c. ... Events January 21 - The Swiss Anabaptist Movement was born when Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, George Blaurock, and about a dozen others baptized each other in the home of Manzs mother on Neustadt-Gasse, Zürich, breaking a thousand-year tradition of church-state union. ... Events January 12 - The Netherlands adopts the Gregorian calendar Beginning of the Eighth War of Religion in France (also known as the War of the Three Henrys) August 8 - John Davis enters Cumberland Sound in quest for the North West Passage. ... Shane ONeill (c. ... Elizabeth I (7 September 1533 – 24 March 1603) was Queen of England and Queen of Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. ... A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a nation, especially in a monarchy. ... The Tower of London, seen from the river, with a view of the water gate called Traitors Gate. ...

He was detained, in England until 1564, and soon after his return his wife's death set him free from such restraint as was provided by her Butler connection. He now raided Thomond, and in Waterford he sought to enforce his feudal rights on Sir Maurice Fitzgerald of Decies, who invoked the help of Thomas Butler, 3rd Earl of Ormonde. The two nobles thereupon resorted to open war, fighting a battle at Affane on the Blackwater, where Desmond was defeated and taken prisoner. Ormonde and Desmond were bound over in London to keep the peace, being allowed to. return early in 1566 to Ireland, where a royal commission was appointed to settle the matters in dispute between them. Desmond and his brother Sir John of Desmond were sent over to England, where they surrendered their lands to the queen after a short experience of the Tower. In the meanwhile Desmond's cousin, James Fitzmaurice Fitzgerald, caused himself to be acclaimed captain of Desmond in defiance of Philip Sidney, and in the evident expectation of usurping the earldom. He sought to give the movement an ultra-Catholic character, with the idea of gaimling foreign assistance, and allied himself with John Burke, son of the earl of Clanricarde, with Connor O'Brien, Earl of Thomond, and even secured Ormonde's brother, Sir Edmund Butler, whom Sidney had offended. Edward Butler also joined the rebellion, but the appearance of Sidney and Ormonde in the south-west was rapidly followed by the submission of the Butlers. Most of the Geraldines were subjugated by Humphrey Gilbert, but Fitzmaurice remained in arms, and in 1571 Sir John Perrot undertook to reduce him. Perrot hunted him down, and at last on 23 February 1573 he made formal submission at Kilmallock, lying prostrate on the floor of the church by way of proving his sincerity. Thomond (Irish: Tuadh Mumhan, meaning North Munster) sometimes called County Thomond was an ancient Kingdom of Ireland which included much of what is now County Clare and at its greatest extents included parts of the counties of Kerry, Limerick, Offaly and Tipperary. ... Thomas Butler, 3rd Earl of Ormonde, also known as the 10th earl (1532-1614), a son of James Butler, 2nd Earl of Ormonde, was lord high treasurer of Ireland and a very prominent personage during the latter part of the 16th century. ... Blackwater can refer to: Blackwater River, the name of numerous rivers. ... Philip Sidney Sir Philip Sidney (November 30, 1554 - October 17, 1586) became one of the Elizabethan Ages most prominent figures. ... Sir Humphrey Gilbert (1539 - 1583) was Sir Walter Raleighs half brother. ... Sir John Perrot (c. ... February 23 is the 54th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... Events January - articles of Warsaw Confederation signed, sanctioning religious freedom in Poland. ... Kilmallock (Cill Mocheallóg in Irish) is a village in south County Limerick, Ireland, near the border with County Cork. ...

Against the advice of the queen's Irish counsellors Desmond was allowed to return to Ireland in 1573, the earl promising not to exercise palatinate jurisdiction in Kerry until his rights to it were proved. He was detained for six months in Dublin, but in November slipped through the hands of the government, and within a very short time had reduced to a state of anarchy the province which Perrot thought to have pacified by his seventies. Edward Fitzgerald, brother of the earl of Kildare, and lieutenant of the queen's pensioners in London, was sent to remonstrate with Desmond, but accomplished nothing. Desmond asserted that none but Brehon law should be observed between Geraldines; and Fitzmaurice seized Captain George Bourchier, one of Elizabeth's officers in the west. Essex met the earl near Waterford in July, and Bourchier was surrendered, but Desmond refused the other demands made in the queens name. A document offering £500 for his head, and £1,000 to any one who would take him alive, was drawn up but was vetoed by two members of the council. Kerry has multiple meanings. ... Dublin (Irish: Baile Átha Cliath1),is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Ireland, located2 near the midpoint of Irelands east coast, at the mouth of the River Liffey and at the centre of the Dublin region3. ...

On 18 July 1574 the Geraldine chiefs signed the Combination promising to support the. earl unconditionally; shortly afterwards Ormonde and the lord deputy, Sir William Fitzwilliam, marched on Munster, and put Desmond's garrison at Derrinlaur Castle to the sword. Desmon.d submitted at Cork on the 2nd of September, handing over his estates to trustees: Sir Henry Sidney visited Munster in 1575, and affairs seemed to promise an early restoration of order. But Fitzmaurice had fled to Brittany in company with other leading Geraldines, John Fitzgerald, seneschal of Imokilly, who had held Ballymartyr against Sidney in 1567, and Edmund Fitzgibbon, the son of the White Knight who had been attainted in 1571. He intrigued at the French and Spanish courts for a foreign invasion of Ireland, and at Rome met the adventurer Thomas Stucley, with whom he projected an expedition which was to make a nephew of Pope Gregory XIII king of Ireland. In 1579 the Italian adventurer landed in Smerwick Bay, where he was joined later by some Spanish soldiers at the Fort del Ore. His ships were captured on 29 July 1579 and he himself was slain in a skirmish while on his way to Tipperary. July 18 is the 199th day (200th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 166 days remaining. ... Events April 14 - Battle of Mookerheyde. ... William Wentworth Fitzwilliam, 4th Earl Fitzwilliam in Ireland, 2nd Earl Fitzwilliam in Great Britain (30 May 1748 - 8 February 1833) was a British politician of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. ... Alternate uses: See Munster (disambiguation). ... Sir Henry Sidney (1529 - May 5, 1586), lord deputy of Ireland, was the eldest son of Sir William Sidney, a prominent politician and courtier in the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI, from both of whom he received extensive grants of land, including the manor of Penshurst in Kent... Traditional coat of arms This article is about the historical duchy and French province, as well as the cultural area of Brittany. ... Rome - Wikipedia /**/ @import /w/skins-1. ... Thomas Stucley (or Stukely) (c. ... Gregory XIII, né Ugo Buoncampagno (January 7, 1502 – April 10, 1585) was pope from 1572 to 1585. ... July 29 is the 210th day (211th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 155 days remaining. ... Events January 6 - The Union of Atrecht united the southern Netherlands under the Duke of Parma, governor in the name of king Philip II of Spain. ...

Nicholas Sanders, the papal legate who had accompanied Fitzmaurice, worked on Desmond's weakness, and sought to draw him into open rebellion: Desmond had perhaps been restrained before by jealousy of Fitzmaurice; his indecisions ceased when on 1 November 1579 Sir William Pelham proclaimed him a traitor. The sack of Youghal and Kinsale by the Geraldines was speedily followed by the successes of Ormonde and Pelham acting in concert with Admiral William Winter. In June 1581 Desmond had to take to the woods, but he maintained a considerable following for some time, which, however, by June 1583, when Ormonde set a price on his head, was reduced to four persons. Five months later, on 11 November 1583, he was seized and murdered by a small party of soldiers. His brother Sir John of Desmond had been caught and killed in December 1581, and the seneschal of Imokilly had surrendered on 14 June 1583. After his submission the seneschal acted loyally, but his lands excited envy; he was arrested in 1587, and died in Dublin Castle two days later. November 1 is the 305th day of the year (306th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 60 days remaining. ... Events January 6 - The Union of Atrecht united the southern Netherlands under the Duke of Parma, governor in the name of king Philip II of Spain. ... Youghal (pronounced or ; Irish Eochaill ) is a seaport in County Cork, Ireland. ... Market Street in Kinsale, one of the towns oldest thoroughfares Kinsale (Cionn tSáile in Irish) is a town in County Cork, Ireland. ... November 11 is the 315th day of the year (316th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 50 days remaining. ... Events August 5 - Sir Humphrey Gilbert establishes first English colony in North America, at what is now St Johns, Newfoundland. ... June 14 is the 165th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (166th in leap years), with 200 days remaining. ... Events August 5 - Sir Humphrey Gilbert establishes first English colony in North America, at what is now St Johns, Newfoundland. ...

By his second marriage with Eleanor Butler, the 15th earl left two sons, the elder of whom, James, (1570–1601), spent most of his life in prison. After an unsuccessful attempt in 1600–1601 to recover his inheritance he returned to England, where he died, the title becoming extinct.

References

• This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica.
• R. Bagwell, Ireland under the Tudors (1885–1890)
• J. O'Donovan (editor), Annals of Ireland by the Four Masters (1851).