Thomas FitzGerald, 5th Earl of Desmond (c. 1386– 1420), was the only son of John FitzGerald, 4th Earl of Desmond. Upon John's death in 1399, Thomas succeeded to the earldom of Desmond, which lay in Munster, in the southwest of

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. In 1418, Thomas was dispossessed of his lands and deprived of his earldom by his paternal uncle,

James FitzGerald, 6th Earl of Desmond James FitzGerald, 6th Earl of Desmond (d. 1462), called 'the Usurper', was a younger son of Gerald FitzGerald, 3rd Earl of Desmond, and Lady Eleanor, daughter of James Butler, 2nd Earl of Ormond. Life The younger brother of John FitzGerald, 4 ...

, after Thomas had concluded a marriage far below his station to Catherine MacCormac of

Abbeyfeale Abbeyfeale (; ) is a historic market town in County Limerick, Ireland, near the border with County Kerry. The town is on the N21 road from Limerick to Tralee, some south-west of Newcastle West and south-east of Listowel and north-east of Tr ...

; Webb, Alfred.
A Compendium of Irish Biography
'. Dublin: 1878. Catherine was the daughter of one of Thomas's dependants, William MacCormac, known as "the Monk of Feale."

Cokayne, George Edward George Edward Cokayne, (29 April 1825 – 6 August 1911), was an English genealogist and long-serving herald at the College of Arms in London, who eventually rose to the rank of Clarenceux King of Arms. He wrote such authoritative and standar ...

,
Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct, or Dormant. Volume III
'. London: George Bell & Sons. 1890. p. 85 A marriage between a man of Norman blood and a woman of Gaelic ancestry was in violation of the

Statutes of Kilkenny The Statutes of Kilkenny were a series of thirty-five acts enacted by the Parliament of Ireland at Kilkenny in 1366, aiming to curb the decline of the Hiberno-Norman Lordship of Ireland. Background to the Statutes By the middle decades of the ...

. This ill-fated romance was the subject of the air "Desmond's Song" by the Irish poet

Thomas Moore Thomas Moore (28 May 1779 – 25 February 1852) was an Irish writer, poet, and lyricist celebrated for his ''Irish Melodies''. Their setting of English-language verse to old Irish tunes marked the transition in popular Irish culture from Irish ...

. After the loss of his earldom, Thomas withdrew to France, where he "died at Rouen, 10th August 1420, and was buried at Paris 'with great and mighty show, where the two kings of England and France were present'".

Marriage and issue

Thomas FitzGerald and Catherine MacCormac (a.k.a. Katherine McCormick) of Abbyfeale had two sons: # Maurice, ancestor of the FitzGeralds of Adare and Broghill, # John Claragh, who died in 1452.''Ireland and her people; a library of Irish biography'', (Thomas W. H. Fitzgerald, ed.), Fitzgerald Book Company, 1910, p. 189
/ref>

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Desmond, Thomas FitzGerald, 5th Earl Of

Thomas Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the A ...

14th-century Irish people 15th-century Irish people Normans in Ireland 1386 births 1420 deaths Earls of Desmond (1329 creation)