Francis Cosby (1510–1580) was an English soldier and settler in Ireland. He has been implicated in the

Massacre of Mullaghmast The massacre of (or at) Mullaghmast ( ga, ár Mhullach maistean) refers to a summary execution of Irish gentry by the English Army and Tudor officials in Ireland. It may have occurred at the end of the year 1577 or beginning of 1578. There is li ...

Life

He was the second son of John Cosby of Great Leake,

Nottingham Nottingham ( , locally ) is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east of Sheffield and north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robi ...

.''Francis Cosby (1510–80), Stradbally, Queen's County and the Tudor conquest of Leinster''
/ref> He settled in Ireland in the reign of Henry VIII. He was active in fighting on the edge of the

English Pale The Pale (Irish: ''An Pháil'') or the English Pale (' or ') was the part of Ireland directly under the control of the English government in the Late Middle Ages. It had been reduced by the late 15th century to an area along the east coast st ...

, and was commended by the Lord Deputies

Edward Bellingham Sir Edward Bellingham (1506–1549) was an English soldier and lord deputy of Ireland. Life He was a son of Edward Bellingham of Erringham, Sussex, his mother being Jane Shelley of the Shelley family. After his father's death in 1511, he and h ...

and

Thomas Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Sussex Thomas Radclyffe (or Ratclyffe), 3rd Earl of Sussex KG (c. 15259 June 1583), was Lord Deputy of Ireland during the Tudor period of English history, and a leading courtier during the reign of Elizabeth I. Family He was the eldest son of Hen ...

. In 1558 Cosby was appointed general of the Kerne, and in 1562 was granted the suppressed abbey of Stradbally in Queen's County. In 1565 he became governor of Portlaoise, and seneschal of Queen's County. He helped to massacre, although the degree of his responsibility is not clear, many of the O'Mores at

Mullaghmast Mullaghmast ( ga, Mullach Maistín), (modern spelling in English is Mullamast) is a hill in the south of County Kildare, Leinster, near the village of Ballitore and near the borders with Wicklow, Laois and Carlow. It was an important site in p ...

, near Athy, who had been summoned to the fortress on avowedly peaceful business. The date 1577 in the ''

Annals of the Four Masters The ''Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland'' ( ga, Annála Ríoghachta Éireann) or the ''Annals of the Four Masters'' (''Annála na gCeithre Máistrí'') are chronicles of Middle Ages, medieval Irish history. The entries span from the Flood myt ...

'' is contradicted in the ''Annals of Lough Cé'' which says 1567. Cosby was not successful in repression in Queen's County.

Rory Oge O'More Rory O'More, also known as Rory Oge O'More ( ga, Ruairí Óg Ó Mórdha) (died 1578), was the Irish lord of what became Laois. Family background Rory O'More was the second son of Ruairí Ó Mórdha, Captain of Leix, and Margaret, daughter of ...

was continually threatening him, and took his eldest son prisoner in 1577. The murder of Rory in the following year relieved Cosby; but the outbreak of the

Desmond rebellion The Desmond Rebellions occurred in 1569–1573 and 1579–1583 in the Irish province of Munster. They were rebellions by the Earl of Desmond, the head of the Fitzmaurice/FitzGerald Dynasty in Munster, and his followers, the Geraldines and ...

in 1580 saw him killed by the rebels at the

battle of Glenmalure The Battle of Glenmalure ( ga, Cath Ghleann Molúra) took place in Ireland on 25 August 1580 during the Desmond Rebellions. A Catholic army of united Irish clans from the Wicklow Mountains led by Fiach MacHugh O'Byrne and James Eustace, 3rd Vis ...

, 25 August 1580.

Family

He was married to Lady Mary Seymour, daughter of

Lord Protector Somerset Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset (150022 January 1552) (also 1st Earl of Hertford, 1st Viscount Beauchamp), also known as Edward Semel, was the eldest surviving brother of Queen Jane Seymour (d. 1537), the third wife of King Henry VI ...

., by whom he had three sons, Alexander, Henry, and Arnold. He married Elizabeth Palmer, by whom he had one daughter. Alexander succeeded to the estates, received additional grants in Queen's County, and was, with his son Francis, killed at the battle of Stradbally Bridge. The estates subsequently passed to Richard, another son of Alexander, whose descendants still possess them. Arnold, Francis Cosby's second son, served under Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester in the

Low Countries The term Low Countries, also known as the Low Lands ( nl, de Lage Landen, french: les Pays-Bas, lb, déi Niddereg Lännereien) and historically called the Netherlands ( nl, de Nederlanden), Flanders, or Belgica, is a coastal lowland region in N ...

References

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Cosby, Francis 1510 births 1580 deaths People from Nottingham 16th-century English soldiers 16th-century Anglo-Irish people