DESMOND. England. GO He joined the rising for Perkin Warbcek and laid siege to Waterford from 23 July to 3 Aug. 1487. but made his peace the same year. He m, firstly Ellen, da. of Maurice (Rochk), 1st Viscount Roche ok Fermoy [I.] He in. secondly Honor, da. of " The White Knight." He d. 1520 and was bur. at the Friars Preachers at Tralee. XI. 1520. 11. James Fitz-Mauuice (Fitz-Geuald), F.aul of Desmoid fl.], only surv. s. and h. He appears to have conspired with the French King in 1523 and with the German Emperor in 1528 and wits proclaimed a rebel and traitor. He m, Amv, da. of Turlogh Mac-I-Biuks-Aiu, Bishop of Killaloe. He d. s.p.m. at Dingle (or Rathkeale) IS June 1529, and was bur. (with his father) at Tralee. XII. 1529. 12. Thomas Fitz-Thomas (Fitz-Geiulu), Earl of Desmosd [I.], called (Mao!) "the Bald" and called also "the Victorious," uncle and h. male, being 3d s. of the Sth Earl He was b. 1454. In 1530 he confirmed the disiriet called " the Decies " to his kinsman." () He w. firstly, Shela (or Julia), da. of Comae Laidir Mac Cartiiy, of Musketry. She was living 1505. He m. secondly, Catharine, da. of John Fitz-Geuald, of the Decies, by Ellen, da. of John Fitz-Gibbo.v, " the White Knight," which John Fitz-Gerald was s. and h. of Gerald, the 2d s. of James, 7th Earl of Desmond above named. He <(. at Rathkeale, 1534, aged about SO and w;is bur. at Voughal. His widow, the well known " Old Countess of Desmond," survived him nearly 70 years and d. s.p.m. 1001 aged, as generally reported, 1 10 years.( c ) ( tt ) See their names in the Preface to vol. i, p. hi, note " a." The cause of this summons is stated to be as under : — "The King being still jealous of the nobility of Ireland, whom he knew to be exceedingly addicted to the House of York, sent for most of them [in 1480] to come over to him into England and thither went the Earl of Kildaue, the Viscounts Buttevakt and Fermoy, and the Lords of Athknky, KlNOSALE, GORMANSTOWN, DkLVIN, HoaTII, SLANE, KlLLREN, Tm.MI.KSTON, and Dunsany." See Sir Richard Cox's " Hi'xrnia Anglican*," 1689, 1st part p. 182. From this it would Eeem that the Earls of Oiimonde and Desmond and the Lord Kerry stayed awaj-, as they, with the 12 above named, were likewise so summoned. ( b ) See, ante, p. S5, note " d." ( c ) From a review in the " Her. and Gen. " (vol. viii, pp. 269-280) of an exhaustive work on "Human Longevity" by William J. Thorns, F.S.A. (pub. 1872), it appears tint the greatest number of years assigned to any one in our own country 18 us under, viz., (]) 169 years to Henhy Jenkins who rf. 1670, (2) 152 years to " Old Paur " who d. 1635, and (3) 110 years to the Countess OS DESMOND who d. 1604. Of the Countess there is "a portrait now at Mtiekross claiming (in its inscription) to have been painted in 1614 (really nine year* «f tar her death)." She was, however, "first made famous from a passage in Sir Walter Raleigh's History oj the World (1614) " who states that he himself knew her and that she teas married in Edward IV s time" and "live'tin 1589 [when, apparently, he saw her] and muni/ years since ;" and " again in the /Cinerary of I'ynes Moryson (1617) it is stated that ' in our time, the Irish Countess of Desmond tired to the age of about 140 i/cares being able to go on footc four oi- fire miles to Ike market totvne and using weekly so to do in her last ycares ; and not many ycarcs before she died she had all her teeth renewed.' Upon these two passages all subsequent accouuts of the old Countess from Lord Bacon and Archbishop Usher down to the days of Pinnock's catheehisms and Penny Cyclopedias have been founded, with various imaginary embellishments of which the most ornamental are derived from the Historic Doubts of Horace Walpole and the poetry of Thomas Moore." The date of her marriage is unknown, but as her husband's former wife was "living in 1505* and most probably for some years longer" it "did not take place till long after the death of King Edward IV nor perhaps her birth cither ; her dancing with Richard, Duke of Gloucester, being nothing but an imaginative embellishment given by Horace Walpole. So far Sir Walter Raleigh was wrong but as her husband died in 1537 [1634] she might well be called the old Countess in 1589, having been a widow for 52 [55] years. Her death took place in 1601 but not, upon any good evidence; by falling from a chary tree as
- i.e., 20 Heu. VII not (1528) 20 Hen. VIII, as sometimes (incorrectly) stated.
