James FitzGerald, 13th Earl of Desmond

James FitzJohn FitzGerald
Earl of Desmond
Tenure	1536–1558
Predecessor	James FitzGerald, de jure 12th Earl
Successor	Gerald FitzGerald, 14th Earl
Died	14 October 1558 Askeaton
Buried	Askeaton
Spouse(s)	Joan Roche Móre O'Carroll Catherine Butler Evelyn MacCarthy Mor
Issue Detail	Thomas, Gerald & others
Father	John FitzThomas FitzGerald
Mother	Móre O'Brien

James FitzJohn FitzGerald, 13th Earl of Desmond (died 1558), also counted as the 14th,^[a] owned large part of the Irish province of Munster. He was appointed Lord Treasurer of Ireland in 1547.

Birth and origins[]

James was born the second but became the eldest surviving son of John FitzThomas FitzGerald and his wife More O'Brien. His father was the de facto 12th Earl of Desmond who had seized the earldom at the death of the 11th Earl in 1534 claiming that James FitzGerald, de jure 12th Earl of Desmond was illegitimate due to his parents' consanguinity. His father's family, the FitzGeralds of Desmond, were a cadet branch of the Old English Geraldines, of which the FitzGeralds of Kildare were the senior branch. James's mother was a daughter of Donogh O'Brien of Carrigogunnell, County Limerick, Lord Pobblebrien. Gerald's mother's family was a native Irish family or clan.

Early years[]

On the death of his father in June 1536, James FitzGerald assumed the position and title of Earl of Desmond that was his father's as de facto earl, but James FitzMaurice FitzGerald was earl de jure. In order to support his position, FitzGerald sought the support of O'Brien of Thomond, the head of the discontented party in Ireland. The government, which had just suppressed the rebellion of Thomas FitzGerald, 10th Earl of Kildare, resolved to attack him, and on 25 July 1536, Lord Leonard Grey, Lord Deputy of Ireland, marched against him. Breaching the border of Cashel, Grey sought to separate FitzGerald from O'Brien, "so as we might have entangled but with one of them at once." Grey took possession of FitzGerald's castle of Lough Gur,^[3] the doors and windows of which had been carried away and the roof burned by the FitzGeralds. He gave the captured castle to Lord James Butler, 9th Earl of Ormond.^[4]

Claim to the earldom[]

FitzGerald "showed himself in gesture and communication very reasonable", and offered to deliver up his two sons as hostages, and to submit his claims to the earldom to the decision of Lord Grey. FitzGerald's claim was renewed in December of the same year. "And as far as ever I could perceive," wrote Grey to Thomas Cromwell in February 1537, "the stay that keepeth him from inclining to the king's grace's pleasure is the fear and doubt which he and all the Geraldines^[c] in Munster have in the Lord James Butler, both for the old malice that hath been betwixt their bloods, and principally for that he claimeth title by his wife to the earldom of Desmond."^[5][6]

Grey argued in favour of FitzGerald's claims. In August 1538, Anthony St Leger, who was at the time serving on the commission "for the order and establishment to be taken and made touching the whole state of Ireland," was advised by Cromwell "to handle the said James in a gentle sort." Accordingly, on 15 September, FitzGerald was invited to submit his claims to the commissioners at Dublin. Suspecting their intention, he declined to place himself in their power, though signing articles of submission and promising to deliver up his eldest son as hostage for his good faith. The negotiations continued to be delayed. In March 1538, the commissioners wrote that FitzGerald "hathe not only delivered his son, according to his first promise, to the hands of Mr. William Wyse of Waterford to be delivered unto us, but also hath affirmed by his secretary and writing all that he afore promised."^[7]

Fortune's chance[]

FitzGerald had good reason for his caution. The Ormond faction in the council, violently opposed to Grey and St Leger, were assiduously striving to effect his ruin. In July 1539, John Allen related to Cromwell how the "pretended Earl of Desmond" had confederated with O'Donnell and O'Neill "to make insurrection against the king's majesty and his subjects, not only for the utter exile and destruction of them, but also for the bringing in, setting up, and restoring young Gerald (the sole surviving scion of the house of Kildare) to all the possessions and pre-eminences which his father had; and so finally among them to exclude the king from all his regalities within this land."^[8]

In April 1540 the council informed Henry VIII of England that "your grace's servant James Fitzmaurice, who claimed to be Earl of Desmond, was cruelly slain the Friday before Palm Sunday, of unfortunate chance, by Maurice FitzJohn FitzGerald, brother to James FitzJohn FitzGerald, then usurper of the earldom of Desmond. After which murder done, the said James Fitzjohn immediately resorted to your town of Youghal, where he was well received and entertained, and ere he departed entered into all such piles and garrisons in the county of Cork as your majesty's deputy, with the assistance of your army and me, the Earl of Ormonde, obtained before Christmas last."^[9]

Ormonde was sent to parley with FitzGerald, but he refused to trust him. On the arrival of St Leger as deputy, however, FitzGerald again renewed his offer of submission, and promised, upon pledges being given for his safety, to meet him at Cashel. This he did, and renounced the supremacy of the Pope. "And then," wrote St Leger, "considering the great variance between the Earl of Ormond and him, concerning the title of the earldom of Desmond ... I and my fellows thought it not good to leave that cancer remain, but so laboured the matter on both sides, that we have brought them to a final end of the said title."

Investiture[]

St Leger assured King Henry "that sith my repair into this your land I have not heard better counsel of no man for the reformation of the same than of the said Earl of Desmond, who undoubted is a very wise and discreet gentleman," for which reason, he said, he had sworn him of the council and given him "gown, jacket, doublet, hose, shirts, caps, and a riding coat of velvet, which he took very thankfully, and ware the same in Limerick and in all places where he went with me."^[10] By such conciliatory conduct St Leger, in the opinion of Justice Cusack, won over to obedience the whole province of Munster.^[11]

In July 1541, James FitzGerald was appointed chief executor of the "ordinances for the reformation of Ireland" in Munster. In token of the renunciation of the privilege claimed by his ancestors of not being obliged to attend the great councils of the realm, he took his seat in a parliament held at Dublin. In June 1542 he visited England, where he was graciously received by King Henry, his title acknowledged, and the king wrote to the Irish council "that the Earl of Desmond hath here submitted himself in so honest, lowly, and humble a sort towards us, as we have conceived a very great hope that he will prove a man of great honour, truth, and good service". Nor did he, during the rest of his life, fail to justify this opinion. On 9 July 1543 he obtained a grant of the crown lease of St. Mary's Abbey, Dublin, "for his better supporting at his repair" to parliament.

Henry's son, Edward VI, named him Lord Treasurer of Ireland on the death of the Earl of Ormonde (patent 29 March 1547), and on 15 October 1547, when thanking him for his services in repressing disorders in Munster, King Henry offered to make a companion of his son. During the government of Edward Bellingham he was accused of treason, and having refused a peremptory order to appear in Dublin, the deputy swooped down upon him unexpectedly in the dead of winter 1548, and carried him off prisoner. He was soon released and continued in office by Queen Mary.

Marriages and children[]

FitzGerald married four times:

First marriage[]

FitzGerald's first marriage was to his grandniece Joan Roche, daughter of , and his wife Eleanor, the daughter of FitzGerald's younger brother Maurice.^[12] The marriage was annulled and their son Thomas Ruadh FitzGerald of Conna, who otherwise would have been heir apparent, was disinherited. FitzGerald's grandson by Thomas James (Séamus) Fitzgerald, called "the Sugán Earl", would claim the earldom and lead a revolt.

Second marriage[]

Secondly he married More O'Carroll, daughter of Sir Maolrony McShane O'Carroll, Lord of Ely. She would die in 1548.

James and More had three sons:

1. Géaroîd|Gerald (c. 1533 – 1583) succeeded as the 14th Earl^[13]
2. John (died 1581), was killed near Castlelyon during the Second Desmond Rebellion^[14]
3. Maurice, predeceased his father and died without issue^[15]

—and four daughters:

Third and fourth marriages[]

Thirdly he married Catherine Butler, second daughter of Piers Butler, 8th Earl of Ormond, and widow of .^[16] She died at Askeaton on 17 March 1553.

Fourthly and last he married Evelyn MacCarthy Mor, daughter of Donal MacCormac MacCarthy Mor, by whom he had a son, Sir James-Sussex FitzGerald who died in 1580, and a daughter, Elinor.

Death and timeline[]

In the summer of 1558 the 13th Earl of Desmond became sick and died at Askeaton on Thursday, 14 October. He was buried in the abbey of the Franciscan Friary in that town on 1 November.^[17] Half a century after James FitzGerald's death, the chroniclers of the Annals of Four Masters observed, "The loss of this good man was woful to his country; for there was no need to watch cattle or close doors from Dun-caoin, in Kerry, to the green-bordered meeting of the three waters, on the confines of the province of Eochaidh, the son of Lachta and Leinster."^[18]

Timeline
As his birth date is uncertain, so are all his ages.
Age	Date	Event
0	1500, estimate	Born
33	1533, about	Son Gerald born[13]
36	1536, 19 Mar	Succeeded his cousin as 13th Earl of Desmond
47	1547, 28 Jan	Accession of Edward VI, succeeding Henry VIII of England[19]
53	1553, 6 Jul	Accession of Queen Mary I, succeeding Edward VI of England[20]
58	1558, 27 Oct	Died

Ancestry[]

Notes, citations, and sources[]

Notes[]

Citations[]

Sources[]

• Burke, Bernard (1866). A Genealogical History of the Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited and Extinct Peerages of the British Empire (New ed.). London: Harrison. OCLC 11501348.
• Clavin, Terry. McGuire, James; Quinn, James (eds.). "FitzGerald, James fitz John". Dictionary of Irish Biography. Retrieved 4 August 2021. – Online edition
• Cokayne, George Edward (1916). Gibbs, Vicary (ed.). The complete peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct, or dormant. Vol. 4 (2nd ed.). London: St Catherine Press. OCLC 228661424. – Dacre to Dysart
• Dunlop, Robert (1889). "FitzGerald, Gerald, fifteenth earl of Desmond (d. 1583)". In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 19. New York: MacMillan and Co. pp. 120–122. OCLC 8544105.
• Fryde, E. B.; Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I., eds. (1986). Handbook of British Chronology. Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, No. 2 (3rd ed.). London: Offices of the Royal Historical Society. ISBN 0-86193-106-8. – (for timeline)
• Lodge, John (1789). Archdall, Mervyn (ed.). The Peerage of Ireland or, A Genealogical History of the Present Nobility of that Kingdom. Vol. 4. Dublin: James Moore. OCLC 264906028. – Viscounts
• O'Donovan, John (1856). Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland, by the four Masters, from the Earliest Period to 1606. Vol. 5 (2nd ed.). Dublin: Hodges, Smith & Co. – 1501 to 1588
• State Paper Commission (1834). State Papers Published under the Authority of His Majesty’s Commission. Vol. 2.3. London: His/Her Majesty's Stationery Office. OCLC 1085335500. – Correspondence between the governments of England and Ireland 1515 to 1538
• Westropp, Thomas Johnson (1907). "The Principal Ancient Castles of the County Limerick: Part II Tudor Period". The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland. 37 (2): 153–164. JSTOR 25507604.
• Wills, Rev. James (1840). "James Ninth Earl of Ormonde". Lives of illustrious and distinguished Irishmen, from the earliest times to the present period. Vol. 2. Dublin: MacGregor, Polson & Co. pp. 471–473.

Peerage of Ireland
Preceded by John FitzGerald and James FitzGerald	Earl of Desmond 1st creation 1536–1558	Succeeded by Gerald FitzGerald