STEP BACK IN TIME
Click Here to Contact me Jennifer Walsh
& Click
Here to view my photo's
Feel free to view or sign my guest book or guest map
|
STEP BACK IN TIME
Click Here to Contact me Jennifer Walsh
& Click
Here to view my photo's
Feel free to view or sign my guest book or guest map
|
|
|
The Desmond castle was founded by William de Burgo in 1199, Askeaton castle became the dwelling place of the King of Munster. In 1287 the Castle was on the possession of Thomas De Clare. King Edward II, who reigned from 1298 to 1328, granted it to Robert de Welle on 1318. The Earls of Desmond made askeaton castle their principal dwelling place from 1348. today's structure dates from the 15th century. the English forces marched against the Desmond's in Oct 1579. they considered the Desmond's as traitors after the refused to accept English rule. on august 1642, askeaton castle was captured by colonel Purcell of the confederate Catholics and the council of his majesty for the province of Munster. all arms, munitions, garrison horses and goods belonging to the Catholics were surrendered. Askeaton castle was finally dismantled in 1652 by the Cromwellian forces . To the west of the castle lies the banqueting hall and it is one of the finest to be seen anywhere in Ireland it was built in 1440 by the seventh Earl of Desmond
Why did the Desmond Revolt fail? In Nov 1583 some stolen cattle were tracked by their owners and soldiers from the garrison to a cavern in the Woods of Glanageenty, 5 miles east of Tralee. Inside they found an old man lying asleep on the floor. They attacked him. On his claim to be the Earl of Desmond they bound him and tried to drag him through the woods, but he couldn’t walk, so they beheaded him and his head was sent to queen Elizabeth, who had it impaled on London Bridge. Thus ended the revolt of Garrett Fitzgerald, 13th Earl of Desmond, who had been virtually the absolute ruler of a territory larger than any other lord in either England or Ireland - the province of Munster. There were many reasons for the failure of the Desmond revolt: Munster’s half million acres of land tempted the Earl’s rivals, notably James FitzMaurice FitzGerald, and English adventurers, all of whom wanted Garrett’s downfall and profit for themselves; the same FitzMaurice tried to use Munster to launch a religious crusade against the heretic English queen; a centuries-old rivalry between Desmond and Ormond led to a lifelong dispute with Thomas Butler, 10th Earl of Ormond; money troubles became ever more pressing as time went on; his health was bad following a wound received at the Battle of Affane, then palsy and ague, the results of imprisonment and deprivation, were exacerbated by the Irish climate while he was in hiding; his allies forsook him and became potential foes as the price on his head increased; he had multitudes of undisciplined swordsmen whose only trade was war, and these ravaged the countryside when he could no longer pay them; his army vanished, more through famine and fear than because of actual battles; and, possibly most important of all, Garrett’s own character made his downfall inevitable.
Garrett Fitzgerald was brought up by his father in the tradition of the Gaelic lords, the product of a society that expected its leaders to be warriors seeking homage, wealth and power, essentially he was a diehard who was set on a collision course with the forces of change. Many of his contemporaries thought he was mad, but it seems rather that he was headstrong and ingenuous. The only sensible thing he ever accomplished was his second marriage, to Eleanor Butler (born of a cadet branch of the Butlers of Ormond). At the time of his first marriage Garrett was 20 and Joan, the dowager countess of Ormond, was 40. The match caused a sensation but it had a stabilizing influence on Garrett. Unfortunately Joan was also the mother of Thomas Butler, the 10th Earl of Ormond who was only 15 at the time. Thomas, known as Black Tom, had been brought up a Protestant at the English court in the company of Elizabeth Tudor, who was his cousin. His loyalty to and friendship with Elizabeth lasted all of her life and was frequently a deciding factor in his disputes with the Earl of Desmond. It seems reasonable to suppose that a lad of fifteen would resent his mother’s marriage to his traditional enemy. Whether or not that was so, the first trouble between the two men arose because Black Tom refused to hand over Joan’s dowry to her new husband. This dispute went on for about fifteen years, until after her death. It was a saga of attack and retaliation between the two, with Joan managing to keep them from open warfare. Elizabeth summoned the two men to London and Garrett angered the queen by his attitude. He was charged with defying the law, imprisoned and did not return to Ireland until 1564, after signing a treaty with Elizabeth and giving her his bond for £20,000. Joan died on 2 January 1565. Though it seems to have been a love match, this did not stop Garrett from courting and marrying Eleanor Butler towards the end of that same month. Again it seems reasonable to suppose that this did not endear him to Black Tom, and the dispute came to a head at the Battle of Affane (on the Blackwater river, near Lismore) only days later.
This was the last battle fought between two private armies in these islands. Garrett was wounded in the thigh by a musket ball and captured, Elizabeth was irate, both combatants had to answer to the Crown in England and Garrett was imprisoned in the Tower once again. This time his health began to deteriorate because he no longer had the money to make his conditions comfortable, there were whispers of treason and he only saved his neck by complete submission to the Privy Council in 1568. Munster was a lordship of half a million acres which tempted Garrett’s rivals (John of Desmond, his brother, and John FitzMaurice) as well as English adventurers such as Sir Walter Raleigh, they all sought his downfall and their own profit The rents amounted to over £7000 per year. Under the privileges of Gaelic law the Earl was entitled to various traditional tributes and payments from vassal lords and chieftains - who often complained that he sometimes exacted more than his due. The tenants also had to maintain his army (by coign and livery), and to provide for the Earl and his entourage when he went through his territory (cuddy). ‘As a result of these various exactions the husbandmen appear never to have been able to improve themselves beyond bare subsistence. Again because of incessant warfare and turmoil many areas, such as those bordering the earldoms of Ormond and Desmond, were completely desolate. 'Canny The Elizabethan Conquest of Ireland, 1976 Sussex, The Harvester Press, p21) When the Earl raised his standard he was entitled to the support in arms of every member of his house and every dweller upon his lands, a serious threat to the Crown if Garrett was hostile. The lordship was difficult to conquer, it was divided into many local units, each with its own castle or town house, and victory could only be achieved by the destruction or yielding of every one of them. He paid not a penny in taxes to the Crown.
Eleanor , Countess of Desmond, administered the estates while Garrett was in prison and sent him money to keep himself in comfort, she kept watch on his kinsmen and followers, and had to contend with all the threats to the peace and stability of Desmond; later she shared his years of captivity, nursed him through illnesses, petitioned for his release, negotiated with governors, she even confronted Elizabeth and maintained contact with her for many years (the initial hostility of the queen changed to grudging respect for Eleanor). She was literate in both English and Gaelic, and an able horsewoman, which stood her in good stead when, during their fugitive life, she frequently led the pursuers away from her ailing husband. Persistence and constancy were the keynotes of her attitude to Garrett even in their worst times , her personal objective was always to make her husband secure in his title and estates, but she realized that he had to come to terms with political changes. After the Earl was proclaimed traitor and rebel she shared the misery of his fugitive life, but her attempts to reconcile the 2 worlds, old and new, though valiant were destined to fail. In 1568 while Garrett was in prison, Sir Peter Carew claimed large tracts of land in Munster by virtue of his descent from the original Anglo-Norman settlers, and Sidney recognized his claim. Then James FitzMaurice Fitzgerald, Garrett’s cousin, led the Desmond forces in revolt. He found support among his own people and some of the Gaelic Irish and also sought allies among the Ormond Butlers to promote the religious crusade against Elizabeth and the Puritan officers of the English army who were determined to stamp out papal supremacy. Their armies swept through the province and the new settlers fled. Connacht , Leinster and even Black Tom were prepared to join in the fight and the queen blamed Sidney, who then led the reprisals. The land was laid waste, Eleanor could not collect the rents so she had nothing to send to Garrett. In early 1570 Eleanor was given permission to come to England, where she stayed with Garrett in the Tower. Later they all moved, in the custody and at the expense of Sir Warham St Leger, to his house in Southwark. In December of that year Sir John Perrot was appointed president of Munster and given much of Desmond’s lands and rights, this was part of Sidney’s efforts to undermine the power of the Desmonds. Garrett’s heir, James, was born in June 1571 and it became obvious that Garrett’s brother, Sir John Desmond (with him in prison), had hoped to succeed to the earldom. When Elizabeth was excommunicated there were many plots against her. Garrett was given a certain amount of freedom and abused this with frantic attempts to get help to escape. In 1573 Garrett was allowed to go back to Ireland, once the FitzMaurice rebellion was over, after signing away his powers and privileges and much property. The Desmonds were so poor that they were almost in rags, in fact Elizabeth gave them silk and money. Eleanor gave her two year old son into the care of the Earl of Leicester - not as a hostage, but for his safety from Garrett’s relatives. When they landed in Dublin Garrett remained a semi-prisoner there, but Eleanor was allowed to return to Munster and she arranged his escape. Once beyond the Pale they both threw off the hated English clothes and dressed once more as Gaelic lords. They returned among their own people to a rapturous welcome ‘knowing no God, no prince but the Earl, no law but his behests’ (Bagwell, Tudors, I I ,238).
After Garrett’s escape from Dublin he did not keep the promises made to Elizabeth and refused to forfeit his fortresses to her. Garrett then claimed victory and outraged the queen’s sense of sovereignty. He began fighting again with allies impressed by his prestige after the escape and unemployed swordsmen flocked to him. The lord deputy could do little to curb Garrett. There was turmoil in every province. The queen sent Edward Fitzgerald, brother to the Earl of Kildare to negotiate, but Garrett wouldn’t negotiate with anybody. The deed of association 1574 (or 78 - no-one knows) rose out of a meeting of Garrett, his kinsmen and his tributary lords. They stated that they did not wish to remove the English from Ireland, nor join in any religious conspiracy against the Crown. They just wanted to preserve their lands, powers and privileges. In 1575 James FitzMaurice was allowed to sail for France, despite his submission in 1573, and there sought assistance for his religious campaign in Ireland A period of peace came to Munster, Garrett and Eleanor’s daughters came home (their son was still in England), life returned to normality and comfort. Christmas brought the whole Munster nobility together to meet Lord Deputy Sidney - a splendid and lavish occasion. But rumors about Garrett’s power and scheming and treachery ran riot in England and reports of the lawlessness in Munster continued to enrage the queen. She sent her new favourite, Essex, to resolve the problem. Garrett met him reluctantly, urged by Eleanor, and they went to Dublin to talk to the Council. The Crown made impossible demands, which would leave him undefended and would be opposed by his dependent lords, so Garrett refused to negotiate and returned home. On the way they were met by Black Tom who urged Garrett (loudly, so that Essex would hear) to become a loyal subject. Elizabeth threatened to have him proclaimed a rebel. Again Eleanor wrote humbly to her, Garrett gave up Castlemaine and the queen pardoned him. Sir Henry Sidney tried to deal with the reported lawlessness of Garrett’s estates but neither he nor Elizabeth ever understood how strongly Garrett felt about the hereditary powers and privileges of his position. In 1576 Sir William Drury was appointed President of Munster. Rumors reached Garrett that he was to be imprisoned again, so he fled to Kerry. James (6) was restored to his parents, and In 1578 Garrett formally submitted to Sidney at Kilkenny. The old wound in his thigh was causing him great pain and Sidney was astonished at his physical deterioration. He was also showing the early signs of palsy. Later that year Sidney left Ireland. FitzMaurice returned in 1579, with a fleet, an army and a banner - and also Dr Nicholas Sanders, the papal nuncio. The 2 urged the lords and chieftains to focus their discontent on religion. Eleanor suspected that FitzMaurice really wanted the earldom. Garrett’s brothers, Sir John and James Desmond, joined FitzMaurice and, to prove their loyalty, killed Drury’s emissaries. Both were proclaimed rebels. A large part of Garrett’s army joined the crusade army. Garrett was now weak and unable to mount his horse unaided. Drury sent Malby (recently appointed President of Connacht) against the rebels.
On the 18 Aug 1579 FitzMaurice was shot dead in a dispute over stolen horses while he was retreating. Sir John Desmond assumed command of the rebels. Malby pressured Garrett from one side, his clansmen from the other. Garrett’s followers wanted his son to be a hostage, Eleanor hid him. Dr Sanders besieged Garrett with letters mad messages to convince him to join the crusade, promising aid from the Pope and the King of Spain. Sanders began to have more and more influence over Garrett, Eleanor became worried for the safety of her son. Drury departed because of ill-health , taking the 8 year old boy with him for safe-keeping at her request. Malby, as
temporary governor, began his final campaign against Garrett. He burned
and pillaged the Limerick estates and fired the abbey at their home Askeaton
Castle. Garrett even turned to Ormond for help, but none came. REBELLION The Earl of Desmond was the reluctant leader of the rebellion, pushed by all around him, and proclaimed traitor to the Crown. Eleanor, to get to Elizabeth and plead Garrett’s case, even tried to divorce him, but her plans were thwarted by the Lord Chief Justice, so she fled to join him instead. Then Garrett made an inexplicable and savage attack on Youghal, leaving it ransacked and in flames. Dr Sanders preached the message of the Counter-Reformation, exhorting him and his followers against the heretic queen and Garrett was exalted by the justness of the cause. Promises of support and large reinforcements flowed into his base at Newcastle, but it was winter and his health worsened. His son was imprisoned in Dublin Castle, he was safer than Garrett in Munster. Black Tom, Earl of Ormond, attacked, burned and looted. In Jan 1580 Philip II of Spain wrote to Garrett while he was in the fortress of Castlemaine - his idle, landless adherents meanwhile looted and ravaged the countryside and the peasants escaped to the woods and hills. Meanwhile, in the Pale, began the first ever uprising of members of the leading families, led by Viscount Baltinglass. The Pale gentry were outraged by their treatment in matters of taxation and because the New English had been given the land from the monasteries and Kildare. Since Baltinglass was a Catholic, and also found support from the O’Byrnes of Wicklow, the English were in consternation. It was a major disaster and their response to both revolts increased in savagery. In spring that year war began again as reports that Philip was ready to sail in support of the rebel Earl of Desmond united the English court factions, and they urged Elizabeth to back Ormond and Pelham. So the two invading armies moved through Munster killing and destroying everything in their path. Castle after castle was destroyed, their defenders dead or fleeing, while Garrett awaited the King of Spain in Tralee. His followers started to desert him, there was a shortage of food and supplies, and Garrett’s swordsmen preyed on the impoverished countryside and cursed him for causing their misery. The hunt was on for Garrett and even Eleanor’s brother joined in. The Earl could scarcely walk - whiskey (aqua vitae) relieved his pain and deadened his mind to reality. Pelham, to allay English unease over his ruthlessness, tried to involve Eleanor in a plot to seize John of Desmond and Sanders in return for a pardon. Garrett refused to betray the priest and they were forced to flee from Castleisland into the bogs on foot. With a handful of faithful followers the Earl and Countess of Desmond slept in sod cabins and cold mountain caves, traveling by night for too many were on the watch for them - including their own people who reviled Garrett for their hunger, and the ruination of their crops and livestock. Many of his followers submitted to Pelham and the first signs of serious famine began to appear. Sanders also left to join Viscount Baltinglass in Leinster. Still Pelham stopped at nothing to apprehend Garrett. Then Pelham was recalled, Lord Grey became the new lord deputy and Elizabeth questioned Pelham’s policy of annihilation which had devastated a quarter of Ireland. The Spanish finally landed at Smerwick, near Dingle. Garrett was jubilant until he saw Philip’s troops - 700 ragged men, mostly boys, totally inexperienced in warfare. In The Massacre at Smerwick (1580) (Dun an Oir), Alfred O’Rahilly describes what happened:
Lord Grey made terms with
the defenders of the fort which he afterwards violated totally. Instead of
allowing all to leave with their lives, a few were saved for ransom, most (about
600) were put to the sword, the Irish were hanged (including pregnant women) and
some: Oliver Plunkett, of Drogheda, Laurence Moore, a priest (whose thumbs
and forefingers were first cut off) and Walsh, servant of Dr Saunders - had
their arms and legs broken and, when they refused to accept Elizabeth as head of
the church, were hanged the following day. Garrett had turned the queen’s greatest fear (of Ireland being used as launching pad against England by Spain, especially at a time when England and Spain were virtually at war) into reality - he was finished. But he reverted from the religious motivation, which had never really fitted him, to the true cause - the proud defense of the power and privilege of his title, and prepared to lead his followers in that defense. The Earl of Ormond began to preach peace and reconciliation, afraid for his own estates as Grey and his landless retinue were so eager for the spoils of war . During the winter of 1581-2 Garrett and his wife were pursued without respite. Eleanor became an object of fear to the English soldiers. Once they were almost caught but she held Garrett as they hid in an icy river from the searching soldiers. From 1582 Garrett was alone. His kinsmen and Sanders were all dead. Grey adopted a scorched earth policy. The Earl of Desmond had now been on the run for two years of great hardship, with Eleanor always striving to intercede and negotiate on his behalf. She even went to see Grey, who had her taken to semi-captivity in Dublin, but Elizabeth ordered her to be sent back to Garrett, and his uncondional surrender so that his estates and property could be used to pay the expenses of the war against him. Grey did not tell Eleanor of this offer which might have saved Garrett’s life. Before she rejoined her husband, she asked that James, now 11, should be sent to England to be brought up there instead of imprisonment in Dublin, this was subsequently granted.
Garrett made a final effort to fight the Crown and called his followers to arms - those who refused were dealt with summarily. This was the final conflict of the old world and starving men flocked to his banner, he took the fight to the territory of Black Tom and so the original combatants were to face each other once again. The queen gave him men and the power to grant pardons to all in Desmond’s camp. One by one his allies deserted him and accepted pardons, Garrett and Eleanor fled over the mountains to Kerry. Garrett’s health had deteriorated so much that he had to be carried by his galloglasses. Meanwhile his men fell into the hands of Black Tom’s army. In mid June 1583 Eleanor unconditionally submitted to the Earl of Ormond. Garrett had become hampered by her presence, or so he said, and they had parted. He probably wanted to save her, both to assist his son and to work on his own behalf as she had done so many times. All these things brought Garrett Fitzgerald, 15th Earl of the ancient house of Desmond, to the point where he had to flee, like a hunted animal, for his life through the bogs and mountains of his native land and to die in poverty in a cave. But the greatness and prestige that had eluded him in life were his in death, for tradition and literature chose to depict him as one of the great symbolic patriotic figures of history. The last word goes to Edmund Spenser, poet and civil servant, who saw and described the once fertile province and Garrett Fitzgerald's people after the failure of the Desmond revolt: “Out of every corner of the woods and glens they came creeping forth upon their hands for their legs could not bear them, they looked like anatomies of death, they spoke like ghosts, crying out of their graves, they did eat the dead carrions, happy where they could find them, yea, and one another soon after, insomuch as the very carcasses they spared not to scrape out of their graves and if they found a plot of watercress's or shamrocks, there they flocked as to a feast for a time, yet not able long to continue there withal, that in short space there were none almost left, and a most populous and plentiful country suddenly left void of man or beast.”
|
