Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 4.djvu/272

 254 DESMOND who d. II Aug. 1602. She d. 1636, being bur. with her 2nd husband in the Abbey of St. Dominick, at Sligo.^ M.l. Will dat. 5 Sep. 1636, pr. in Dublin, 1638. XV. 1600 I. James FitzGerald, s. and h. by the 2nd wife,('') to aged 12 in 1583, was b. in England,(') and is said to have 1 60 1. been a godson of the Queen, to whom he was presented in infancy, by the Earl of Leicester, June 1573. He was sent to Ireland in 1579, confined in Dublin Castle from Oct. 1579 till July 1584, when he was removed to the Tower of London, where he remained till Aug. 1600. In order to neutralise the pretensions of his cousin, James FitzThomas, the Sugdn Earl, who had assumed the Earldom and who was in open rebellion against the English government, he was by patent, dat. at Oatlands, i Oct. 1600, cr. and restored as Earl of Desmond [I.],(<^) "to hold the same as fully as Gerard, his father, with the title of Baron of Inchiquin [1.] to be borne by his eldest son and heir apparent,"(') with rem. to the heirs male of his body. He, who is called T/ie Queen's Ear/, and sometimes T/ie Tower Ear/, was sent into Ireland Oct. 1600, in the hope that he would draw to himself the ancient followers of his race, but having professed the protestant religion, was able to effect nothing, and returned a few months later to London, (') where he d. unm., about (») She must have been about 90 years old. The Lords of the Council wrote to Lord Chichester, 31 May 16 13, that "the Countess of Desmond ... is grown aged and has not long to live," and requested him " to give her such favour as may become a lady of her years and quality." V.G. C") There is a tradition that a younger s., Thomas, existed (who d. s.p.). No such son is mentioned in the Earl's feoffment of his estates, dat. 10 Sep. 1574. G.E.C. and V.G. (') The Countess, in a letter to Lord Burghley, at Dublin 28 Aug. 1582, mentions " my boy that I bare in England, w'='' then both his father and I gave to her Maf as a fry geaft." He was probably h. at St. Leger House, Southwark, in July or Aug. 1 57 1. V.G. {^) "I send herewith the charter in due form of law for creation of Mr. Fitz- Gerald to be Earl of Desmond, and the heir apparent to be Baron of Inchequyn in Munster, as I understand he was before his father's fall. I have caused search to be made of their first creation which was in the i or 2 of King E. 3 and it cannot be found. There is another Baron of Inchequyn but it is in Connaught." (Roger Wilbraham, Master of the Requests, to Sir Robert Cecil, 23 Aug. 1600). V.G. (') See Lynch, p. 258, who calls attention to the fact that the attainder by Act of Pari, remained unrepealed, and quotes the case of the Earldom of Kildare [I.], attainted by Act of Pari. 28 Hen. VIII, and restored by letters patent (only) 13 May 1554, "from which it might be inferred that the prerogative of the Crown was greater in Ireland than it appears to have been in England." It should be remarked that the Barony of Inchiquin [I.] was in 1600 (as now in 1916) a Peerage [I.] cr. 1543, in actual existence, held by the family of O'Brien. (*) Sir George Carew writes from Cork to Sir Robert Cecil, 22 Mar. 1600/1: " This bearer, my Lord of Desmond, desirous to see her Majesty, doth now make his