Desmond, Earl of

Former Irish aristocratic title. Along with the territory of County Kerry, it was first conferred on Maurice Fitzthomas (or Fitzgerald) in 1329, while the last holder was James Fitzgerald, the 15th earl of Desmond, in the late 16th century.

In 1579–80, Gerald Fitzgerald, 14th Earl of Desmond, led a rebellion against Queen Elizabeth I. He sacked the town of Youghal and murdered the inhabitants, was proclaimed a traitor, and became a fugitive for over two years. Fitzgerald was finally killed by bounty hunters in a cabin in the Kerry Mountains in 1583. Though the earldom passed to his son, the lands attached to it were forfeited after the rebellion and were resettled as the ‘Munster plantation’ by new arrivals from England.