sions in south-west Munster, although several generations had passed since any of them had had any effective occupation of the districts in question. At the moment the Earl of Desmond, who held a large part of the Fitzstephen and De Cogan inheritance, and claimed to be rightful owner of most of those parts of Cork and Kerry actually held by the Mac Carthys and their subject clans, had, to escape a worse fate, surrendered all his estates to the Queen. It was not yet certain whether she intended to pardon him and restore the lands; and to Carew and certain friends and neighbours of his the opportunity seemed a favourable one to obtain riches for themselves, and to establish the English power securely in all the sea coast from Cork to the mouth of the Shannon.[1]
Accordingly propositions for a confiscation and settlement on a great scale were put forward, whether suggested in the first place by the government, or by the gentlemen adventurers is not clear. The immediate effect was a rebellion, sometimes known as the first Desmond rebellion, sometimes as the Butlers' wars, in which the Mac Carthys and the Butlers for once united with their hereditary enemies the Geraldines.
Under the leadership of Sir James Fitz Maurice Fitzgerald, a near kinsman of the Earl of Desmond, the rebellion lasted for some three years, and deluged Munster in blood. The Butlers and Mac Carthys soon fell away from the combination,
- ↑ Froude gives a detailed, and perhaps too highly-coloured account of this colonisation scheme. It came to nothing, and it is doubtful if it was ever really accepted by the government. See a letter of Sir Peter, Car. Cal., 1573.
