Desmond Rebellions

The Desmond Rebellions occurred in the 1560s, 1570s and 1580s in Munster in southern Ireland. They were rebellions of the Earl of Desmond dynasty—the Fitzgerald family or Geraldines—and their allies against the efforts of the Elizabethan English government to extend their control over the province of Munster. The rebellions were primarily about the independence of feudal lords from their monarch but also had an element of religious conflict (Roman Catholic against Protestant). The result of the rebellions was the destruction of the Desmond dynasty and the subsequent plantation or colonisation of Munster with English settlers. See also Tudor re-conquest of Ireland

The Aftermath

After three years of scorched earth warfare, famine hit Munster. In April 1582, the provost marshal of Munster (Warhame St Ledger) estimated that 30,000 people had died of famine in the previous six months. Plague broke out in Cork city, where the country people fled to avoid the fighting. People continued to die of famine and plague long after the war had ended, and it is estimated that by 1589 one third of the province's population had died. Grey was recalled by Elizabeth I for his excessive brutality. Two famous accounts tell us of the devastation of Munster after the Desmond rebellion. The first is from the Gaelic Annals of the Four Masters.

Related Topics:
Famine - 1582 - Cork city - 1589 - Elizabeth I - Annals of the Four Masters

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

the whole tract of country from Waterford to Lothra, and from Cnamhchoill to the county of Kilkenny, was suffered to remain one surface of weeds and waste...

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

At this period it was commonly said, that the lowing of a cow, or the whistle of the ploughboy, could scarcely be heard from Dun-Caoin to Cashel in Munster.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The second is from the View on the Present State of Ireland, written by English poet Edmund Spencer who fought in the campaign.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In those late wars in Munster; for notwithstanding that the same was a most rich and plentiful country, full of corn and cattle, that you would have thought they could have been able to stand long, yet eare one year and a half they were brought to such wretchedness, as that any stony heart would have rued the same.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Out of every corner of the wood and glens they came creeping forth upon their hands, for their legs could not bear them; they looked Anatomies death,

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

they spoke like ghosts, crying out of their graves; they did eat of the carrions, happy where they could find them, yea, and one another soon after, in so much as the very carcasses they spared not to scrape out of their graves; and if they found a plot of water-cresses or shamrocks, there they flocked as to a feast for the time, yet not able long to continue therewithal; that in a short space there were none almost left, and a most populous and plentiful country suddenly left void of man or beast.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The wars of the 1570s and 1580s marked a watershed in Ireland. Although English control over the country was still far from total, the Geraldine axis of power had been annihilated, and Munster was "planted" with English colonists. Thousands of English soldiers and administrators had been imported to deal with the rebellion, and were allocated land in the subsequent Munster Plantation of confiscated Desmond estates. The Munster plantation settled several thousand of these people in the south of Ireland. The Elizabethan conquest of Ireland was completed after the subsequent Nine Years War in Ulster.

Related Topics:
Munster Plantation - Nine Years War - Ulster

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~