The Desmond Rebellions occurred in between 1569-1573 and 1579-1583 in Munster in southern Ireland ('Desmond' is the English language name given to the Gaelic 'Deasmumhain', which means 'South Munster'). Munster ( Irish: An Mhumhain, ənˈvuːnʲ Cúige Mumhan or Mumha) is the southernmost of the four Provinces of Ireland. Ireland (pronounced /ˈaɾlənd/ Éire) is the third largest island in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world They were rebellions of the Earl of Desmond dynasty—the Fitzgerald family or Geraldines and their allies against the efforts of the Elizabethan English government to extend their control over the province of Munster. The title of Earl of Desmond has been held historically by lords in Ireland, first as a title outside of the peerage system and later as part of the Peerage of Ireland Peers of Ireland The FitzGeralds are a Hiberno-Norman Dynasty, and have been Peers of Ireland since at least the 13th century Romance and reality The Victorian era and the early twentieth century idealised the Elizabethan era The rebellions were primarily about the independence of feudal lords from their monarch but also had an element of religious conflict (Roman Catholic against Protestant). Feudalism, a term first used in the early modern period (17th century in its most classic sense refers to a Medieval Europe Political system composed Protestantism refers to the forms of Christian faith and practice that originated in the 16th century Protestant Reformation. The result of the rebellions was the destruction of the Desmond dynasty and the subsequent plantation or colonisation of Munster with English settlers. Plantations in 16th and 17th century Ireland were established throughout the country by the confiscation of lands occupied by Gaelic clans and Hiberno-Norman dynasties Colonisation (also known as Colonization) occurs whenever any one or more species populates a new area The English people (from the adjective in Englisc) are a Nation and Ethnic group native to England who predominantly speak English
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Causes
The south of Ireland (the provinces of Munster and southern Leinster) was dominated, as it had been for over two centuries, by the Old English Butlers of Ormonde and Fitzgeralds of Desmond, who formed what were essentially miniature feudal principates. Ireland (pronounced /ˈaɾlənd/ Éire) is the third largest island in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world The Old English (Seanghaill were the descendants of the settlers who came to Ireland from Wales, Normandy and England after the Norman Both houses raised their own armed forces and imposed their own law, a mixture of Irish and English customs independent of the English government of Ireland in Dublin. However, since the 1530s, successive English administrations in Ireland had been trying to expand English control over all of Ireland (See Tudor re-conquest of Ireland). By the 1560s, their attention had turned to the south of Ireland and Henry Sidney, as Lord Deputy of Ireland, was charged with establishing the authority of the English government over the independent lordships there. Sir Henry Sidney ( 1529 - 5 May 1586) lord deputy of Ireland, was the eldest son of Sir William Sidney of Penshurst a prominent politician The Lord Deputy was the King's representative and head of the Irish executive during the Kingdom of Ireland. His solution was the formation of "lord presidencies"—provincial military governors who would replace the local lords as military powers and keepers of the peace.
The local dynasties saw the presidencies as intrusions into their sphere of influence, and into their traditional violent competition with each other. This had seen the Butlers and Fitzgeralds fight a pitched battle against each other at Affane in County Waterford in 1565. The Battle of Affane was fought in County Waterford, in south-eastern Ireland, in 1565 between the forces of the Fitzgerald Earl of Desmond and the County Waterford (Contae Phort Láirge is a County in the province of Munster on the south coast of Ireland. This was a blatant defiance of the Elizabethan state's law. Elizabeth I summoned the heads of both houses to London to explain their actions. London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. However, the treatment of the dynasties was not even handed. Thomas Butler, 3rd Earl of Ormonde — who was the Queen's cousin — was pardoned, while both Gerald Fitzgerald, 14th Earl of Desmond (in 1567) and his brother, John of Desmond, widely regarded as the real military leader of the Fitzgeralds, (in 1568) were arrested and detained in the Tower of London on Ormonde’s urging. Thomas Butler 10th Earl of Ormonde and 3rd Earl of Ossory, was born circa 1531 and died on 22 November 1614. Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London (and historically as The Tower) is a historic monument in central London
This decapitated the natural leadership of the Munster Geraldines and left the Desmond Earldom in the hands of a soldier, James Fitzmaurice Fitzgerald, the "captain general" of the Desmond military. James Fitzmaurice Fitzgerald, a member of the 16th century ruling Geraldine dynasty in the province of Munster in Ireland, rebelled against the crown authority Fitzmaurice had little stake in a new de-militarised order in Munster, which envisaged the abolition of the Irish lords’ private armies. A factor that drew wider support for Fitzmaurice was the prospect of land confiscations, which had been mooted by Sidney and Peter Carew, an English colonist. This ensured Fitzmaurice the support of important clans, notably MacCarthy Mor, O'Sullivan Beare and O'Keefe and two prominent Butlers –brothers of the Earl. Fitzmaurice himself had lost the land he had held at Kerricurrihy in County Cork, which had been leased instead to English colonists. County Cork (Contae Chorcaí is the most southerly and the largest of the modern counties of Ireland. He was also a devout Catholic, influenced by the counter-reformation, which made him see the Protestant Elizabethan governors as his enemies. The Counter-Reformation (also Catholic Reformation denotes the period of Catholic revival from the pontificate of Pope Pius IV in 1560 to the close of the To discourage Sidney from going ahead with the Lord Presidency for Munster and to re-establish Desmond primacy over the Butlers, he planned a rebellion against the English presence in the south and against the Earl of Ormonde. Fitzmaurice however had wider aims than simply the recovery of Fitzgerald supremacy within the context of the English Kingdom of Ireland. The Kingdom of Ireland (Ríocht na hÉireann was the name given to the Irish state from 1541 by the Crown of Ireland Act 1542 of the Parliament of Ireland. Before the rebellion, he secretly sent Maurice MacGibbon, Catholic Archbishop of Cashel, to seek military aid from Philip II of Spain. Philip II (Felipe II de España Filipe I ( May 21, 1527 &ndash September 13 1598) was King of Spain from 1556 until 1598
First Desmond Rebellion
Fitzmaurice launched his rebellion by attacking the English colony at Kerrycurihy south of Cork city in June 1569 before attacking Cork itself and those native lords who refused to join the rebellion. Cork (Corcaigh is the second largest city in the Republic of Ireland and the island of Ireland 's third most populous city after Dublin and Belfast Fitzmaurice’s force of up to 4,500 men went on to besiege Kilkenny, seat of the Earls of Ormonde in July. Kilkenny, ( is a city and county town of County Kilkenny in Ireland. In response, Sidney mobilised 600 English troops, who marched south from Dublin and another 400 troops landed by sea in Cork. Thomas Butler, Earl of Ormonde returned from London, where he had been at court, brought the rebel Butlers out of the rebellion and mobilised Gaelic Irish clans antagonistic to the Geraldines. London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. Together, Ormonde, Sidney and Humphrey Gilbert, appointed as governor of Munster, began devastating the lands of Fitzmaurice's allies. Sir Humphrey Gilbert (c 1539 &ndash 9 September 1583was an English murderer Adventurer, Explorer, Member of parliament, and soldier from Devon Fitzmaurice's forces broke up, as individual lords had to retire to defend their own territories. Gilbert in particular was notorious for the terror tactics he employed, killing civilians at random and setting up a corridor of severed heads at the entrance to his camps.
Sidney forced Fitzmaurice into the mountains of Kerry, from where he launched hit and run attacks on the English and their allies. County Kerry ( Contae Chiarraí in Irish) is a southwestern county of Ireland. By 1570, most of Fitzmaurice's allies had submitted to Sidney. The most important, Donal MacCarthy Mor surrendered in November 1569. Nevertheless, the guerrilla campaign dragged on for three more years. In February 1571, John Perrot was made Lord President of Munster, pursuing Fitzmaurice with 700 troops for over a year without success. Sir John Perrot (c 1527 - September 1592 was lord deputy of Ireland under Queen Elizabeth I of England and is best known for his part in the Tudor re-conquest of Fitzmaurice had some victories, capturing an English ship near Kinsale and burning the town of Kilmallock in 1571, for example, but by early 1573, his force was reduced to less than 100 men. Kinsale (Cionn tSáile is a town in County Cork, Ireland. Located some 25 km south of Cork City on the coast near the Old Head of Kinsale Kilmallock ( Cill Mocheallóg in Irish) is a historic and sporting town in south County Limerick, Ireland, near the border with County Fitzmaurice finally submitted on February 23, 1573, having negotiated a pardon for his life. Events 1455 - Traditional date for the publication of the Gutenberg Bible, the first Western Book printed from Movable However in 1574, he again became landless and in 1575 he sailed to France to seek help from the Catholic powers to start another rebellion.
Gerald Fitzgerald, Earl of Desmond, and his brother John were released from prison to stabilise the situation and to reconstruct their shattered territory. Under a new settlement imposed after the rebellion, known as "composition", the Desmond’s military forces were limited by law to just 20 horsmen and their tenants made to pay rent to them rather supply military service or to quarter their soldiers. Perhaps the biggest winner of the first Desmond Rebellion was the Earl of Ormonde, who established himself as loyal to the English Crown and as the most powerful lord in the south of Ireland.
Although all of the local chiefs had submitted by the end of the rebellion, the methods used to suppress it provoked lingering resentment, especially among the Irish mercenaries; gall oglaigh or "gallowglass" as the English termed them, who had rallied to Fitzmaurice. The gallowglass were a Mercenary Warrior élite among Gaelic-Norse clans residing in the Western Isles of Scotland (or William Drury, the new Lord President of Munster from 1576, executed around 700 of them in the years after the rebellion. Furthermore the aftermath of the rebellion, Gaelic customs such as Brehon Laws, Irish dress, bardic poetry and the maintaining of private armies were outlawed – things that were highly provocative to traditional Irish society. Early Irish law refers to the statutes that governed everyday life and politics in Ireland during the Gaelic period. Fitzmaurice, by contrast, had deliberately emphasised the Gaelic character of the rebellion, wearing the Irish dress, speaking only Irish and referring to himself as the captain (taoiseach) of the Geraldines. Finally, Irish landowners continued to be threatened by the arrival of English colonists. All of these factors meant that, when Fitzmaurice returned from continental Europe to start a new rebellion, there were plenty of discontented people in Munster waiting to join him.
Second Desmond Rebellion
The second Desmond rebellion was sparked when James Fitzmaurice Fitzgerald launched an invasion of Munster in 1579. The Second Desmond rebellion (1579-1583 was the more widespread and bloody of the two Desmond Rebellions launched by the Fitzgerald dynasty of Desmond James Fitzmaurice Fitzgerald, a member of the 16th century ruling Geraldine dynasty in the province of Munster in Ireland, rebelled against the crown authority During his exile in Europe, he had reinvented himself as a soldier of the counter-reformation, arguing that since the Pope's excommunication of Elizabeth I in 1570 Irish Catholics no longer owed loyalty to a heretic monarch. The Counter-Reformation (also Catholic Reformation denotes the period of Catholic revival from the pontificate of Pope Pius IV in 1560 to the close of the Pope The Pope granted Fitzmaurice an "indulgence" and supplied him with troops and money. An indulgence, in Roman Catholic Theology, is the full or partial Remission of temporal punishment due for Sins which have already been forgiven Fitzmaurice landed at Smerwick, near Dingle (modern County Kerry) on July 18 1579 with a small force of Spanish and Italian troops. Ard na Caithne, meaning height of the Arbutus or strawberry tree, (formerly also known as Smerwick in English a name which lost all legal standing under the Dingle (An Daingean or Daingean Uí Chúis) is a town in County Kerry in Ireland on the Atlantic Coast some west-south-west of County Kerry ( Contae Chiarraí in Irish) is a southwestern county of Ireland. Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. The' Italian people' are a Southern European Ethnic group located primarily in Italy, Switzerland, France and by virtue of a wide-ranging He was joined in rebellion on August 1 by John of Desmond, a brother of the Earl, who had a large following among his kinsmen and the disaffected swordsmen of Munster. Other Gaelic clans and Old English families also joined in the rebellion. After Fitzmaurice was killed in a skirmish with the Clanwilliam Burkes on August 18, John Fitzgerald assumed leadership of the rebellion.
Gerald, the Earl of Desmond, initially resisted the call of the rebels and tried to remain neutral but gave in once the authorities had proclaimed him a traitor. In Law, treason is the Crime that covers some of the more serious acts of disloyalty to one's sovereign or Nation. The Earl joined the rebellion by sacking the towns of Youghal (on November 13) and Kinsale, and devastated the country of the English and their allies. Youghal (ˈjɔːl yawl or /ˈjɒhəl/ Irish Eochaill ˈɔxəʎ meaning 'yew wood' is a Seaport in County Cork, Ireland Kinsale (Cionn tSáile is a town in County Cork, Ireland. Located some 25 km south of Cork City on the coast near the Old Head of Kinsale However, by the summer of 1580, English troops under William Pelham and locally raised Irish forces under the Earl of Ormonde succeeded in bringing the rebellion under control, re-taking the south coast, destroying the lands of the Desmonds and their allies in the process, and killing their tenants. By capturing Carrigafoyle at Easter 1580, the principal Desmond castle at the mouth of Shannon river, they cut off the Geraldine forces from the rest of the country and prevented a landing of foreign troops into the main Munster ports. The siege of Carrigafoyle Castle took place at Easter in 1580 near modern-day Ballylongford, County Kerry, Ireland on the southern shores of the Easter ( Greek: Πάσχα Pascha or Pasxa) is the most important religious feast in the Christian Liturgical year. The River Shannon ( Sionainn or Sionna in Irish) is at 386 km (240 miles the longest river in Ireland. It looked as if the rebellion was fizzling out.
However, in July 1580, the rebellion spread to Leinster, under the leadership of Gaelic Irish chieftain Fiach MacHugh O'Byrne and the Pale lord Viscount Baltinglass—motivated by Catholicism and hostility to the English. Leinster (ˈlɛnstər Irish: Laighin, lainʲ one of the Provinces of Ireland, lies in the east of Ireland and comprises the counties of Fiach Mac Aodh Uî Broin (anglicised as Fiach MacHugh O'Byrne) (1544 &ndash 1597 was chief of Clann Uí Bhroin or the O'Byrne clan during the Elizabethan conquest The Pale ( An Pháil in Irish) or the English Pale ( An Pháil Sasanach) was the English-controlled part of Ireland that had reduced by the late Baltinglass ( is a town in south-west County Wicklow, Ireland. A large English force under the Lord Deputy of Ireland Earl Grey de Wilton were sent to subdue them, only to be ambushed and massacred at the battle of Glenmalure on August 25, losing over 800 dead. The Lord Deputy was the King's representative and head of the Irish executive during the Kingdom of Ireland. Arthur Grey 14th Baron Grey of Wilton (1536-1593 was a Baron in the Peerage of England, born to William Grey 13th Baron Grey de Wilton and Princess The Battle of Glenmalure (Cath Ghleann Molúra took place in Ireland in 1580 during the Desmond Rebellions. However, the Leinster rebels were unable to capitalise on their victory or to effectively coordinate their strategy with the Munster insurgents.
On September 10, 1580, 600 Papal troops landed at Smerwick in Kerry to support the rebellion, but were besieged in a fort at Dun an Oir. Events 506 - The Bishops of Visigothic Gaul meet in the Council of Agde. They surrendered after two days of bombardment and were then massacred. By relentless scorched-earth tactics, the English broke the momentum of the rebellion by mid 1581. By May 1581, most of the minor rebels and Fitzgerald allies in Munster and Leinster had accepted Elizabeth I's offer of a general pardon. Even worse, John of Desmond, in many ways the main leader of the rebellion, was killed north of Cork in early 1582. Cork (Corcaigh is the second largest city in the Republic of Ireland and the island of Ireland 's third most populous city after Dublin and Belfast
For the Geraldine Earl however there would be no pardon, and he was pursued by crown forces until the end. From 1581 to 1583, the war dragged on, with the remaining Geraldines evading capture in the mountains of Kerry. The rebellion was finally ended on 2 November 1583 when the earl was hunted down and killed near Tralee in Kerry by the local clan O'Moriarty. Tralee (Trá Lí (or Tráigh Lí is the county town of County Kerry, in the southwest corner of Ireland. The clan chief, Maurice, received 1000 pounds of silver from the English government for Desmond's head, which was sent to Queen Elizabeth. His body was triumphantly displayed on the walls of Cork.
Aftermath
After three years of scorched earth warfare, famine hit Munster. A famine is a widespread shortage of food that may apply to any Faunal species which phenomenon is usually accompanied by regional Malnutrition, Starvation In April 1582, the provost marshal of Munster, Sir Warham St Leger, estimated that 30,000 people had died of famine in the previous six months. Plague broke out in Cork city, where the country people fled to avoid the fighting. Cork (Corcaigh is the second largest city in the Republic of Ireland and the island of Ireland 's third most populous city after Dublin and Belfast People continued to die of famine and plague long after the war had ended, and it is estimated that by 1589 one third of the province's population had died. Grey was recalled by Elizabeth I for his excessive brutality. Two famous accounts tell us of the devastation of Munster after the Desmond rebellion. The first is from the Gaelic Annals of the Four Masters:
the whole tract of country from Waterford to Lothra, and from Cnamhchoill to the county of Kilkenny, was suffered to remain one surface of weeds and waste… At this period it was commonly said, that the lowing of a cow, or the whistle of the ploughboy, could scarcely be heard from Dun-Caoin to Cashel in Munster. Annals of the Four Masters AD432 entryjpg|thumb|right|Entry for A
The second is from the View of the Present State of Ireland, written by English poet Edmund Spenser, who fought in the campaign:
In those late wars in Munster; for notwithstanding that the same was a most rich and plentiful country, full of corn and cattle, that you would have thought they could have been able to stand long, yet ere one year and a half they were brought to such wretchedness, as that any stony heart would have rued the same. Edmund Spenser (c 1552 &ndash 13 January, 1599) was an important English Poet and Poet Laureate best known for The Out of every corner of the wood and glens they came creeping forth upon their hands, for their legs could not bear them; they looked Anatomies [of] death, they spoke like ghosts, crying out of their graves; they did eat of the carrions, happy where they could find them, yea, and one another soon after, in so much as the very carcasses they spared not to scrape out of their graves; and if they found a plot of water-cresses or shamrocks, there they flocked as to a feast for the time, yet not able long to continue therewithal; that in a short space there were none almost left, and a most populous and plentiful country suddenly left void of man or beast.
The wars of the 1570s and 1580s marked a watershed in Ireland. Although English control over the country was still far from total, the Geraldine axis of power had been annihilated, and Munster was "planted" with English colonists following the parliamentary arrangements of 1585. Following a survey begun in 1584 by Sir Valentine Browne, Knight, Surveyor General of Ireland, the thousands of English soldiers and administrators who had been imported to deal with the rebellion were allocated land in the Munster Plantation of Desmond's confiscated estates. The Surveyor General is an official responsible for government Surveying in a specific country or territory Plantations in 16th and 17th century Ireland were established throughout the country by the confiscation of lands occupied by Gaelic clans and Hiberno-Norman dynasties The Elizabethan conquest of Ireland was completed after the subsequent Nine Years War in Ulster and the extension of plantation policy to other parts of the country. The Nine Years War (Cogadh na Naoi mBliana in Ireland took place from 1594 to 1603 and is also known as Tyrone's Rebellion. Ulster ( Ulaidh ˈkwɪɟɪ ˈʌlˠu / ˈʌlˠi is one of the four provinces of Ireland, in addition to Connacht, Munster and Leinster
See also
References
- Colm Lennon, Sixteenth Century Ireland – The Incomplete Conquest, Dublin 1994. Early Modern Ireland saw the first full conquest of Ireland by England and its colonization with Protestant settlers from England and Scotland County Desmond (Deas Mumhain was a historic kingdom earldom and county of Ireland located on the country's south-western coast
- Edward O'Mahony, Baltimore, the O'Driscolls, and the end of Gaelic civilisation, 1538-1615, Mizen Journal, no. 8 (2000): 110-127.
- Nicholas Canny, The Elizabethan Conquest of Ireland, Harvester Press Ltd, Sussex 1976.
- Nicholas Canny, Making Ireland British 1580-1650, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2001.
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