Katherine FitzGerald, Countess of Desmond

Katherine FitzGerald, Countess of Desmond (died 1604) was a noblewoman of the Anglo-Norman FitzGerald dynasty in Ireland. English writers of the Tudor period, including Sir Walter Raleigh, helped popularize "the old Countess of Desmond" as a nickname for her. One estimate placed her age at death in excess of 120 years. Another ranged as high as 140.

Nathaniel Grogan's 1806 engraving of Lord Kerry's portrait of Katherine, Countess of Desmond

Life

Katherine FitzGerald was the daughter of Sir John FitzGerald, second Lord of Decies in Waterford, and Ellen Fitzgibbon. She was probably born at Dromana, in County Waterford. In 1529, she married, becoming the second wife of Thomas FitzGerald, 12th Earl of Desmond (1454-1534), "her cousin german once removed."

Katherine, Countess of Desmond, the Dromana Portrait

In later life, Desmond was party to a property dispute typical of late-Tudor Ireland (1485-1603). Her husband had granted her a life tenancy in Inchiquin Castle, a few miles southwest of the town of Youghal, in Munster. The remainder interest was to revert to the line of the Earls of Desmond, upon Countess Desmond's death. In 1575, she passed title to the castle and lands in trust, by deed, to the incumbent earl, Gerald FitzGerald, who then passed it in trust to his servants.

National Portrait Gallery, 18th. century Portrait of a lady believed to have been the Countess of Desmond

Following the earl's attainder in 1582, whereby his estate fell to the Crown after the Desmond Rebellions, Inchiquin Castle and its lands were granted to New England colonist Sir Walter Raleigh. He proceeded to lease certain of the lands, always preserving the life interest of the Countess. He assumed that she would soon die of old age.

She survived beyond Raleigh's expectation. Sir Richard Boyle, later 1st Earl of Cork, purchased Raleigh's colonial possessions in Ireland, including the title to the castle. Boyle instituted eviction proceedings. To protect her interests, the impoverished "old Countess" set out from Cork in 1604. After sailing to Bristol, she walked the road to London. Unproven, and unlikely, legend claims she made the trip accompanied by an invalid 90-year-old daughter, the daughter trailing behind in a small cart.

In London, her petition was presented to King James I. She returned to Inchiquin and died later the same year.

Death

Lady Desmond reportedly walked every week to her local market town, a distance of 4–5 miles, even after her return from London in 1604. It was said that all her teeth had been renewed just a few years earlier. She died after falling from a tree. Historians of the time disagreed as to the type of tree: Robert Sidney stated it was a nut tree, and that she fell, hurt her thigh, contracted fever and died. Another attributed her death to have been caused by a fall from a cherry tree she was picking. She is believed to be buried, with her husband, in a Franciscan Friary at Youghal.

There are two portraits of Lady Desmond whose provenance is confirmed and a third whose authenticity is less well-settled.

Age

Raleigh, in his History of the World, maintained that Lady Desmond married in the time of King Edward IV (1461 - 1483), making her at least 135 years old at the time of her death. She was said to have danced with King Richard III. The tradition that she died at age 140 was recounted in Fynes Morison's Itinerary and Sir Francis Bacon's History of Life. Harington, writing in 1605, referred to a man who lived longer than 140 years, and to a woman, "and she a countess," who lived longer than 120. If Katherine FitzGerald married in her early twenties, this latter description would match her.

References

• Anne Chambers As Wicked a Woman (Dublin, 1986), pp.232–235. ISBN 0-86327-190-1.
• The Venerable Archdeacon A. B. Rowan, The Olde Countess of Desmond: her Identitie; her Portraiture; her Descente in The Dublin Review, vol. LI [1862], p. 51.
• A.B.R., 'The Old Countess of Desmond' in Notes and Queries1851, p. 305
• Henry Pelham, 'The Old Countess of Desmond', in Notes and Queries, 1852, pp. 305–306
• A.E., Bray, 'The Old Countess of Desmond' in Notes and Queries, 1852, pp.564–565

External links

• The Countess of Desmond article in the Dublin Review pp.51ff.