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DES , on 30th September, Sir William Drury sickened of the fatigues of the campaign, and died at Waterford, whereupon the command of the royal forces devolved upon Sir Nicholas Malby, who was reinforced by 600 Devonshiremen, landed at Waterford. A fleet also hovered off the coast under the command of Sir John Perrot. Leaving 300 foot and 50 horse at Kilmallock, Malby early in October marched with some 600 of his army to Limerick; then turning south, he encountered and gave battle to Sir John and Sir James with vastly superior forces at Monasteranenagh, two miles from Groom. For a time victory seemed undecided. Malby's lines were twice broken; but ultimately the Desmonds were routed with the loss of Thomas FitzGerald, the Earl's cousin, and some 260 men. The Earl of Desmond and FitzMaurice, Lord of Lixnaw, watched the progress of this engagement from top of Tory Hill, little more than a mile distant, and late in the evening sent to congratulate Malby on his victory. This message was treated with contempt—there being no doubt that the Earl would in any case have congratulated the winning side—and Malby proceeded to lay waste Desmond's territory in the neighbourhood. Askeaton, Rathkeale, and Adare, were given to the flames. On 30th October the Earl of Ormond, acting under Malby, demanded that Desmond should give up the Papal Nuncio (Dr. Saunders), and surrender for the Queen's service the castles of Carrigfoyle and Askeaton. Desmond hesitated; on 2nd November a proclamation was issued declaring him a traitor unless he submitted within twenty days, and the next day the Queen's troops marched into the Earl's palatinate of Kerry, and the Earl of Ormond was constituted governor of all Munster. The vacillating Earl of Desmond was forced to choose a side, and he took the field with his brothers about Christmas 1579. The war in which he now found himself involved, continued the four remaining years of his life. It had already been carried on by his cousin FitzMaurice and his brothers for nearly six years. For ten years the country was desolated by contentions of the most sanguinary and merciless character. The conclusion of the war found Munster well-nigh depopulated, and the whole of Desmond parcelled out amongst new proprietors. The war had its origin in the effort of Elizabeth to impose English habits and laws, and English religion, upon the people of Munster; in the rapacity of adventurers thirsting for the confiscation of Irish estates; and in the almost inevitable contest between Elizabeth and her Catholic subjects, forced on by the Papal Bull of 1569, which had excommunicated and deposed her. The points at issue were clearly put by the Earl of Desmond himself: "It is so that I and my brother are entered into the defence of the Catholic faith, and the overthrow of our country by Englishmen, which had overthrown the Holy Church, and go about to overrun our country, and make it their own, and to make us their bondmen." The Earl was, however, utterly unfit to conduct a war of any kind; no important engagement occurred; and his exploits were never more, in Mr. Richey's words, "than an occasional skirmish or plundering excursion; and he gradually sank into a fugitive, and finally into a mere criminal fleeing from justice… [Between the two parties] the interest or the existence of the mass of the people was wholly disregarded. On the one hand, they were excited by|the promises of Spanish invasions, and succour which never arrived [in sufficient force to effect anything]; on the other, they were trampled down and decimated by way of precaution; and thus, from year to year, the plundering and killing went on, until there was nothing left to plunder, and very few to kill." On more than one occasion the Earl nobly refused terms for himself which would involve the surrender of Dr. Saunders, the Papal Legate. In January 1580 two Italian vessels with powder arrived at Dingle, bringing news that he might soon expect other forces from abroad. As spring opened Pelham and Ormond "passed through the rebel counties in two companies, consuming with fire all habitations, and executing the people wherever they found them. FitzMaurice's widow and her two little girls were discovered by the way, concealed in a cave. Mr. Froude adds: "They are heard of no more, and were probably slain with the rest. The Irish annalists say that the bands of Pelham and Ormond killed the blind and the aged, women and children, sick and idiots, sparing none. Pelham's own words too closely confirm the charge." In August 1580 Sir James of Desmond was captured and taken to Cork. There he was hanged and quartered, and his head spiked over one of the city gates. In September, 700 Spaniards and Italians under Sebastian San Josef were landed from four vessels in Smerwick harbour. They conveyed arms for 5,000 men, together with large sums of money and promises of further aid. The fort of Oilen-an-Oir, at Smerwick, garrisoned by FitzMaurice and his party the previous year, was again occupied, repaired, 142