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  • FitzGerald dynasty, 9th Earl of Desmond
  • 1495: Siege of Waterford
  • 1500: Rebuilt Desmond Castle

Biography

Maurice FitzThomas FitzGerald, 9th Earl Desmond, 9th Earl of Desmond, was born circa 1461 to Thomas FitzGerald (c1420-c1467) and Ellise de Barry (c1431-1486) and died 1520 of unspecified causes. He married Ellen Roche (1465-1535) . He married Honora FitzGibbon (c1470-) .

Maurice FitzGerald, 9th Earl of Desmond was the brother of James FitzGerald, 8th Earl of Desmond.[1]

Life

Ireland 1450

Ireland in 1450, showing the Earldom of Desmond, the Pale, and the territories of MacCarthy Mor

Upon the murder of James FitzThomas FitzGerald, the 8th Earl of Desmond, in 1487, his brother Maurice became the 9th Earl of Desmond. The murderer, John Murtagh was apprehended and put to death.[2] In 1489 a plague ravaged the country, followed by a famine in 1497, and many died.[3]

According to Alfred Webb: "Being lame, and usually carried in a horse-litter, he was styled 'Vehiculus,' and by some, on account of his bravery, 'Bellicosus.'"[4]

Tower in Waterford

The cannons of Reginald's Tower helped repel the forces of Perkin Warbeck and Maurice FitzGerald from Waterford in 1495.[5]

In 1495, Maurice FitzThomas FitzGerald supported the pretender, Perkin Warbeck, in the Siege of Waterford and other expeditions. Nevertheless, making a humble submission, King Henry VII not only forgave, but took him into favour, 26 August 1497, and granted him all the 'customs, pockets, poundage, and prize-wines of Limerick, Cork, Kingsale, Baltimore, and Youghall, with other privileges and advantages.'

About the year 1500, Maurice FitzGerald rebuilt Desmond Castle, a three-story tower house in the town of Kinsale, to serve as a Customs House for wine and gunpowder.

The condition of the inhabitants within the Pale at this period is thus described by a contemporary writer:

'What with the extortion of coyne and lyverye dayly, and wyth the wrongful exaction of osteing money, and of carryage and cartage dayly, and what with the Kinge's great subsydye yerely, and with the said trybute, and blak-rent to the Kinge's Iryshe enymyes, and other infynyt extortions, and dayly exactions, all the Englyshe folke of the countys of Dublyn, Kyldare, Meathe, and Uryell ben more oppressyd with than any other folke of this land, Englyshe or Iryshe, and of worsse condition be they athysside than in the marcheis.'

O'Daly thus writes of Earl Maurice:

'This man was subsequently far famed for his martial exploits. He augmented his power and possessions — for all his sympathies were English — and a furious scourge was he to the Irish, who never ceased to rebel against the crown of England. The bitterest enemy of the Geraldines he made his prisoner, to wit, MacCarthy Mor, Lord of Muskerry; and now having passed thirty years opulent, powerful, and dreaded, he died [1520] to the sorrow of his friends and the exultation of his enemies.' He was buried at Tralee. His first wife was daughter of Lord Fermoy; his second, daughter of the White Knight."[4]

Marriage and issue

Maurice first married Lady Ellen Roche of Fermoy,[6] daughter of Maurice Roche, 2nd Lord of Fermoy (distantly related to the Barons Fermoy), and his wife Lady Joan FitzGerald, daughter of James FitzGerald, 8th Earl of Desmond. (His brother's granddaughter? or a different James FitzGerald?)

  1. Thomas FitzMaurice, who predeceased his father, leaving behind one daughter[6]
  2. James FitzGerald, 10th Earl of Desmond[6]
  3. Joan, who married Cormac Óg MacCarthy[6]
  4. Ellis, who married Connor O'Brien, King of Thomond[6]

Maurice's second wife was Honora, daughter of the White Knight (Maurice FitzGibbons).[6]



Children


Offspring of Maurice FitzGerald and Ellen Roche (1465-1535)
Name Birth Death Joined with
Thomas FitzGerald (c1488-1515)
James FitzGerald (c1490-1529) 1490 18 June 1529 Dingle Amy Ara
Joan FitzGerald (c1492-)
Ellis FitzGerald (c1494-)



Siblings


Offspring of Thomas FitzGerald (c1420-c1467) and Ellise de Barry (c1431-1486)
Name Birth Death Joined with
James FitzGerald (1459-1487) 1459 7 December 1487 Rathkeale, County Limerick, Ireland Margaret O'Brien (c1460-)
Maurice FitzGerald (c1461-1520) 1461 1520 Ellen Roche (1465-1535)
Honora FitzGibbon (c1470-)
Thomas FitzGerald (c1463-1534) 1463 1534 Rathkeale
John FitzGerald (c1465-1536) 1465 1536 Móre O'Brien
Gerald FitzThomas
Joan FitzGerald
Ellen FitzGerald


References

  • G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910-1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume IV, page 249. Hereinafter cited as The Complete Peerage.
  • Cokayne, and others, The Complete Peerage, volume IV, page 248.

See Also


Footnotes (including sources)

Ω Birth
  • year of birth from brother




MainTour, Rtol

Peerage of Ireland
Preceded by
James FitzGerald (1459-1487)
Earl of Desmond
1467–1487
Succeeded by
James FitzGerald (c1490-1529)
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