Joan Fitzgerald, Duchess of Ormond

Joan Fitzgerald, Countess of Ormond, Countess of Desmond (ca. 1509 or ca. 1514 – 2 January 1565) was an Irish noblewoman and heiress, a member of the Norman Fitzgerald family, who were also known as the "Geraldines".

Warning

Peerage of Ireland records show that Sir Francis Bryan and Joan Fitzgerald had no issue/children with each other and Sir Francis did not live but a years after marrying Joan, a marriage at the behest of Sir Francis' friend King Henry VIII. Captain Morgan Bryan, I did not descend from her.

Biography

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Fitzgerald,_Countess_of_Ormond

Her father was of the family of Geraldines, one ot the prominent lines of Anglo-Irish lords who settled in Ireland in the time of Henry II.

After the unpleasant death of her first husband James Butler, 10th Earl of Ormond, she wished to marry her cousin, Gerald Fitzgerald, heir to the Earl of Desmond, although he was twenty years her junior. But since such a marriage would have united the Irish factions she was induced instead to wed Sir Francis Bryan, an Englishman. Bryan was appointed as Lord Marshall and the couple arrived in Ireland in Nov 1548. When Bryan lay dying at Clonmel, Joan was out hunting with cousin Gerald, who succeeded to the title of Earl of Desmond in 1554. Their subsequent marriage brought a measure of peace to Ireland and Joan even carried on a friendly correspondence with Queen Elizabeth. Eventually, however, annoyed by the dominant role his wife appeared to play in their marriage, Desmond broke his truce with her son. Joan spent nearly two weeks riding back and forth between hostile camps before peace was restored. From 1562-1564, Desmond was imprisoned in the Tower of London. Joan set herself the task of persuading Queen Elizabeth to release him, but by the time she was successful, she was on her deathbed. She was buried in the friary at Askeaton. There was no issue of the third marriage. Joan died 2 Jan 1564/5. There was no mystery of Gerald FitzGerald's death; he was attainted, chased down and on 11 Nov 1583 slain, and his head sent to Queen Elizabeth.

The Countess appears to have been made an allowance by the Government. In Oct 1584, Perrot writes: "The Countess of Desmond lay at Clonmel, where she was allowed a diet of viiis. per diem for herself, her daughter, and weemen". This was afterwards disallowed, and she was permitted to live in Dublin Castle. In Mar 1587 she repaired to Elizabeth, who gave her a pension of £200 to be paid in Ireland, with 100 marks for her two daughters.

Family

Joan FITZGERALD (C. Ormonde/C. Desmond)

• Born: ABT 1509, Desmond, Ireland
• Died: 2 Jan 1564
• Buried: Askeaton, Limerick, Ireland

Notes: Her father was of the family of Geraldines, one ot the prominent lines of Anglo-Irish lords who settled in Ireland in the time of Henry II. It is interesting to note that not only did her first husband die unpleasantly, Sir Francis Bryan died of unknown causes while it is said, Joan was seeing Gerald FitzGerald, the Rebel Earl, who would become her third husband. There was no issue of the third marriage. Joan died 2 Jan 1564/5. There was no mystery of FitzGerald's death; he was attainted, chased down and on 11 Nov 1583 slain, and his head sent to Queen Elizabeth.

• Father: James FITZGERALD (10º E. Desmond)
• Mother: Amy MAC-I-BRIEN-ARA
• Married 1: James BUTLER (9° E. Ormonde) BEF 21 Dec 1532 Children:
• 1. Thomas Dubh BUTLER (10° E. Ormonde)
• 2. Edmund BUTLER of Cloghgrenan
• 3. James BUTLER of Duisk
• 4. John BUTLER of Kilcash
• 5. Walter BUTLER of Nodstown
• 6. Edward BUTLER of Ballinahinch
• 7. Piers BUTLER of Grantstown

Married 2: Francis BRYAN (Sir Knight Lord Chief Justice of Ireland) BEF 28 Aug 1548, Childington, Buckinghamshire, England Children:

• Francis BRYAN if he existed, did not survive
• 9. Elizabeth BRYAN if she existed, did not survive

Married 3: Gerald FITZGERALD (15° E. Desmond) ABT 1551

Children:

• 10. Margaret FITZGERALD [No sign this is true]

Citations

• The Peerage of Ireland: a Genealogical History of the Present Nobility of That Kingdom, Vol. 1, 1789 Subject: Nobility, Heraldry Description: Book digitized by Google from the library of Harvard University and uploaded to the Internet Archive by user tpb Publication date: 1789 Publisher: Dublin, J. Moore Author: Lodge, John, 1692-1774, Archdall, Mervyn, 1723-1791, Pre-1801 Imprint Collection (Library of Congress) DLC Sponsor: Google
• Cahiers de Saint Louis , Dupont, Jacques and Saillot, Jacques. 899
• The Lineage and Ancestry of H.R.H. Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, Edinburgh, 1977, Paget, Gerald. N 12350
• The Complete Peerage, 1936 , Doubleday, H.A. & Lord Howard de Walden.X 144
• JOURNAL ARTICLE No. 2. The Earls of Desmond James Graves The Journal of the Historical and Archaeological Association of Ireland Third Series, Vol. 1, No. 2 (1869), pp. 459-498 Published by: Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25497799
• Page 205 of A Genealogical History of the Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages of the British Empire Bernard Burke Harrison, 1866 - Baronetage
• L. G. Pine, The New Extinct Peerage 1884-1971: Containing Extinct, Abeyant, Dormant and Suspended Peerages With Genealogies and Arms (London, U.K.: Heraldry Today, 1972), page 70.

Links

• http://genealogics.org/getperson.php?personID=I00112140&tree=LEO
• http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=johnnewla...
• http://www.thepeerage.com/p3318.htm#i33176