hurst, has every appearance of being apocryphal). On his arrival in April he was examined before the council, and his reply being deemed unsatisfactory, he was committed to the Tower, though so ill both in brain and body, according to Chapuys, that he could do nothing either good or evil. He would have been put there immediately on his arrival, says the imperial ambassador, 'had it not been that the king always hoped to bring over and entrap his son.' On being informed of Lord Thomas's rebellion he did not care to blame him, but showed himself very glad of it, 'only wishing his son a little more age and experience.' About the beginning of September he was allowed somewhat greater liberty, his wife being permitted to visit him freely, there being some proposal when he got a little better to send him into Ireland to influence his son ; but he died before the month expired, and was buried in St. Peter's Church in the Tower. Valiant even to rashness, beloved by his friends and dependents, a faithful husband, a lover of hospitality, he was by no means a match for his rival in diplomacy, and whatever of treason there may have been in his actions it was due rather to imprudence than to premeditated disloyalty. The office of deputy he regarded as the prerogative of his house. By the admission of his enemies he was 'the greatest improver of his lands' in Ireland. Methodical in his habits he in 1518 commenced an import ant book called 'Kildare's Rental' (edited by H. Hore in 'Kilkenny Arch. Soc. Journal,' 1859, 62,66), which affords us a curious glimpse of the peculiar relations existing between landlords and their tenantry at this period. His picture, painted in 1530 by Holbein, is preserved in the library at Carton, Maynooth, co. Kildare.
[There is a serviceable but rather uncritical life in The Earls of Kildare, by C. W. Fitzgerald, late Duke of Leinster. The chief authorities are the State Papers (printed), Henry VIII, vol. ii., supplemented by Mr. Gairdner's admirable calendars ; Sir James Ware's Annals ; Annals of the Four Masters ; Annals of Loch Cé ; Lodge's Peerage (Archdall).]
FITZGERALD, GERALD, fifteenth
Earl of Desmond (d. 1583), was the son
of James, fourteenth earl [q. v.], whom he
succeeded in 1558, doing homage before the
lord deputy, Sussex, at Waterford (28 Nov.)
Shortly afterwards, attended by 'one hundred
prime gentlemen,' he crossed over into England, where he was graciously received by
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 Thomas Butler, tenth earl
of Ormonde [q. v.], about the prize wines
of Youghal and Kinsale, which the latter
claimed, and certain debatable lands on the
river Suir, into which Desmond swore Ormonde 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 Elizabeth. Ormonde 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, a
slight confinement, as the queen wrote to his countess, which would do him no harm, and
which Sir William Fitzwilliam hoped would
have the effect of bringing him to such senses
as he had. Though soon released, he was not
allowed to return to Ireland till the beginning of 1564, after he had consented to such
stipulations as were deemed essential to the
public peace (Morrin, Patent Rolls, i. 485).
Almost immediately after his return he involved himself in a quarrel between the Earl of Thomond and his rival Sir Donnell O'Brien. In October he and Ormonde were again on evil terms with one another,
and in November the latter complained to
Cecil that he 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 the Countess Joan, the wife of Desmond, and
the mother of Ormonde, early in 1565, removed the last restraint on his conduct, and
on 1 Feb. he entered the territories of Sir Maurice Fitzgerald, viscount Decies, and baron of
Dromana, with a considerable body of men in
order to enforce his claim to certain disputed
arrears of rents and services. The Baron of Dromana, however, being anxious to liberate himself from his feudal superior, had meanwhile enlisted the support of the Earl of Ormonde
who, nothing loth, 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, in which Desmond
was wounded in the thigh with a bullet and
taken prisoner. The queen, enraged at this
fresh outbreak, summoned both earls to ap-
