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Chriatian people, by liberally contributing some portion of their spoils for religious uses." 5 '48 196
FitzManrice, Thomas, Lord of Kerry, was, according to Lodge, " born in 1502, and being bred a soldier in Milan, in Italy, under the Emperors of Germany, for many years before the honour accrued to him, was then in that country ; where- upon one Gerald FitzMaurice, the nest heir male apparent, entered upon Lixnaw, and possessed it about a year, when Joan Harman, who had been nurse to the Lord Thomas (being then very old), accompa- nied by her daughter, went in search of him, and taking ship at Dingle, landed in France, proceeded to Milan, and having acquainted him with her errand, died on her return home." After considerable difficulty he obtained possession of the family lands and title. He was in favour with Edward VI. and Queen Mary, having several estates granted or confirmed to him, and he sat in several parliaments. In 1 5 8 1 , howev er, he rose in rebellion, and took Adare and Lisconnell castles. Zouche, the Governor of Cork, marched against him, and defeated him at the wood of Liscon- nell, whereupon he escaped into the Galtee mountains, was reduced to great distress, and besought pardon. This was granted through the intercession of the Earl of Ormond, and he was received into favour and knighted by Sir H. Sidney. He died at Lixnaw, 1 6th December 1 590, aged about 88, and was buried in Bishop Stack's tomb in the Cathedral of Ardfert. He is said to have been handsome and athletic. A correspondent writing to Walsingham, in 1 58 1, describes him as dressed in a russet mantle, hat, leathern jerkin, pair of hose, and a pair of brogues, the whole "not worth a noble." "^ ='*
FitzMaurice, James, cousin of the 15th Earl of Desmond, born early in the 1 6th century, was styled by English writers, "James Geraldine," or "the Arch Traitor." ffis early life abroad is thus referred to in the Desmond Pedigree: "In his lifetime, being a great traveller in France, Spaine, the Low Countrys, Germany, and Turkye, and a renowned Irish warrior, had letters of recommendation from the King of France to the Emperor, and from the Emperor to the King of Poland, where he was honour- ably entertained, and promoted for his fighting against the Turks. In that war he behaved himselfe soe bravely that he won greate applause and honor both for himselfe, his king, and his country." On the imprisonment of Gerald, i sth Earl of Desmond, and his brother, in the Tower of London, in 1 567, the leadershipof thefamily
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fell by their desire to James FitzMaurice. He resisted the pretensions of Sir Thomas Desmond to his brother's earldom. Sir Thomas was supported by the Butlers and by FitzMaurice of Kerry. The ori- gin of the contest that ensued between the chieftains of the south and the Govern- ment is thus stated by Mr. Froude: "A number of gentlemen . . chiefly from Somersetshire and Devonshire — Gilberts, Chichesters, Carews, Grenvilles, Courteneys — twenty-seven in aU, volun- teered to relieve Elizabeth of her trouble with Ireland. . . They insisted they must have the whole coast line from the mouth of the Shannon to Cork har- bour included in their grant. . . The Irish, it is true, were not wholly savages ; they belonged, as much as the English themselves, to the Aryan race ; they had a history, a literature, laws, and traditions of their own, and a religion which gave half Europe an interest in their preserva- tion ; but it is no less certain that to these intending colonists they were of no more value than their own wolves, and would have been exterminated with equal indiffer- ence. . . [Old title deeds were raked up, and a number of farms and castles, belonging to the Desmonds, MacCarthys, and Butlers, were occupied by some of these adventurers.] . . MacCarthy More, James FitzMaurice, the Earl of Desmond's brother, and the south-western chiefs held a meeting in Kerry, and de- termined to use the opportunity of the quarrel between the Butlers and the Eng- lish for a common rising to save them- selves from impending destruction. To them the struggle was for their lands and lives, and as the colonization scheme leaked out, it became easy, with such a cause, to unite all Ireland against the invader. The religious cry and the land cry fell in together. The land was the rallying ground among themselves; religion gave them a claim on the sympathy and the assistance of the Catholic powers." They sent Sir James Desmond and some ecclesiastics to the Pope to crave his assistance ; they overran the country in various directions ; made an ineffectual attack on Kilkenny, sacked Enniscorthy, and marched into Ossory, where they were accused of com- mitting every kind of outrage. They also sent messages to Turlough Luineach O'Neill, inviting him to join their standard of revolt with some of his Scotch auxiliaries. At this juncture Sidney set out on a mili- tary expedition into Munster, and the Earl of Ormond was sent over to bring his refractory brothers to order. The ranks of the insurgents being thus broken up, 199
