Thomas FitzGerald, 5th Earl of Desmond (c.

1386 Year 1386 ( MCCCLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. Events January–December * February 24 – Elizabeth of Bosnia, the mother of the overthrown Queen Mary of Hungary and Croatia, arranges the a ...

– 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 Munster ( or ) is the largest of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the south west of the island. In early Ireland, the Kingdom of Munster was one of the kingdoms of Gaelic Ireland ruled by a "king of over-kings" (). Following the Nor ...

, in the southwest of

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. In 1418, Thomas was dispossessed of his lands and deprived of his earldom by his paternal uncle, James FitzGerald, 6th Earl of Desmond, after Thomas had concluded a marriage far below his station to Catherine MacCormac of Abbeyfeale; 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,
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 who was widely regarded as Ireland's "National poet, national bard" during the late Georgian era. The acclaim rested primarily on the popularity of his ''I ...

. After the loss of his earldom, Thomas withdrew to France, where he "died at

Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine, in northwestern France. It is in the prefecture of Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one ...

, 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
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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 nobility 15th-century Irish nobility Normans in Ireland 1380s births 1420 deaths Earls of Desmond (1329 creation)