James Fitzgerald (Tower Earl of Desmond)

James FitzGerald
Born	c.1570
Died	November 1601
Title	Earl of Desmond
Tenure	1600–1601
Predecessor	–
Successor	–
Parents	Gerald FitzGerald, 15th Earl of Desmond Eleanor Butler

James FitzGerald (c. 1570 – November 1601), an Irish nobleman, was the successor of Gerald FitzGerald, 15th Earl of Desmond. He assumed the title of Earl of Desmond, which had been suppressed in 1582 after the Desmond Rebellions. He spent much of his life in captivity, and was temporarily, but unsuccessfully, restored to the earldom in 1600–01 by the English in an attempt to pacify Munster during the Nine Years War. He thus became the 1st Earl of Desmond, but soon returned to England, where he died in obscurity.

James FitzGerald, the son of the 15th Earl and Eleanor Butler, was born during the earlier of the Desmond Rebellions; Queen Elizabeth of England was his godmother. He was resident in Ireland in 1579, when his father joined the later rebellion against the crown, and at that time his mother chose to deliver him to Sir William Drury, lord deputy of Ireland, who placed him in custody in Dublin Castle. In August 1582, his mother complained bitterly to Lord Burghley that her son's education was being neglected and sought better care for him. After the death of his fugitive father, FitzGerald's gaolers made petition to the English government for his removal to the Tower of London. The petition was granted in 1584, and before the end of the year he was removed to the Tower, where he remained for the next 16 years.

FitzGerald was the heir to the earldom of Desmond, but in 1585 his late father's estate was attainted by the Irish parliament and all its property confiscated by the crown. Most of the hereditary lands in the province of Munster then underwent a radical plantation by English settlers (see Plantation of Munster), but such was the loyalty attached to the FitzGerald name there that the government had good cause to fear a future rebellion. These events occurred during the Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604), and English fear was increased with the prospect of an intervention by the Spanish, who had an historical affinity with the west coast of Ireland.

It was in this context that the young heir found himself nurtured in London, where he was to lead a miserable existence. He appears to have been sickly, as shown by the accounts kept between 1588 and 1598 of payments for medicines, ointments, pills and syrups administered to him. In 1593, he wrote in pathetic terms to the queen's secretary, Sir Robert Cecil, but the government really only had one use for him.

...
Wikipedia