Born: 1516 (circa), Ireland
Died: 2 January 1565
Country most active: Ireland
Also known as: Joan Butler, Joan Bryan, Siobhán Nic Gearailt
This biography is republished from The Dictionary of Irish Biography and was written by Emma Allen. Shared by permission in line with Creative Commons ‘Attribution’ (CC BY) licencing.
Fitzgerald, Joan (née FitzGerald; other married names Butler, Bryan) (a. 1516–65), countess of Ormond, Ossory and Desmond, was born in Munster. She was the only child of James fitz Maurice FitzGerald, 11th earl of Desmond, and his wife Amy (or Anne), daughter of Toirdhealbhach Ó Briain, bishop of Killaloe. Very little is known of Joan’s early life. As the FitzGeralds were one of the two largest landowning families in Munster, her father was frequently engaged in power struggles with the Butler family, particularly Piers Butler, 8th earl of Ormond and 1st earl of Ossory.
In an attempt to quell the long-standing feud between the Desmond and Ormond families, Joan was married to James Butler, 9th earl of Ormond, in 1530. The eldest son of Piers Butler, the 8th earl, James succeeded to the earldoms of Ormond and Ossory on his father’s death in August 1539. Steadfastly loyal to the crown, Butler was appointed to several administrative positions, including lord treasurer of Ireland in 1532 and the admiralty of Ireland in May 1535. Rewarded with several land grants throughout the 1530s, Butler became increasingly powerful within the Dublin administration and as a land magnate. When Anthony St Leger was appointed lord deputy of Ireland in 1540, he saw Butler as a threat to stability and their relationship deteriorated. Both men were summoned to London in the summer of 1546, when a peaceful settlement was reached. However, shortly after attending a dinner in his honour at Ely House in Holborn on 11 October 1546, Butler and several members of his household died of food poisoning. The suspicious timing and circumstances of his death caused some to speculate that he was poisoned, though no investigation was held. As executrix of his will, Joan assumed responsibility for protecting the inheritance of their seven sons, especially Butler’s heir Thomas, then a fifteen-year-old minor. In 1547 Joan travelled to London where she presented two petitions to parliament defending her son’s inheritance – which included hundreds of thousands of acres in the south and east of Ireland – from competing claims to the estates.
Now a very powerful widow in Ireland, Joan’s remarriage became a matter of great concern for the Dublin administration, which vigorously opposed her attempts to marry her cousin Gerald fitz James Fitzgerald, 15th earl of Desmond. Fearing that such a marriage would give rise to a dynasty more dangerous than that of the Fitzgeralds of Kildare, which had recently risen against the king, the administration forced her to marry one of Henry VIII’s intimates, the notoriously dissolute poet and courtier Sir Francis Bryan, on 28 August 1548. His marriage to Joan secured him the position of lord marshal of Ireland in November 1548, and lord justice in 1549. He died suddenly in Clonmel on 2 February 1550.
Although Joan had promised lord chancellor John Alen and the Irish government that she would not remarry without their permission, later that year she defied the council by marrying the 15th earl of Desmond. Now countess of Desmond, the marriage cemented her status as one of the most influential women in Ireland. As an elite, landholding woman, she extended patronage to many men, including James White and Nicholas Brown (merchants from Clonmel), her husband’s attorney (Andrew Skyddy) and cousin (Maurice of Desmond). However, marrying back into the Desmond family when her son Thomas was heir to the Ormond earldom placed Fitzgerald in a position of divided loyalties. After his father’s death, Thomas was brought up as a ward of the English court where he earned the admiration of the future queens Mary and Elizabeth. Staunchly loyal to the English government, he returned to Ireland as 10th earl of Ormond in 1554.
Conflict soon emerged between Joan’s son and her husband, with a dispute over the collection of the ‘prise wines’ (taxes imposed on imported wine) of Youghal and Kinsale ports one of the thorniest sources of friction. Tension between the two men threatened to boil over into outright aggression in 1560 when Ormond and Desmond each assembled approximately 5,000 men in Tipperary, but conflict was averted following an intervention by Joan. In January 1562 both earls were summoned to England to negotiate a truce, which was agreed on 21 July. Conscious of Joan’s importance to any settlement that might emerge, Elizabeth I wrote to her directly on 7 June 1562 asking that Joan ‘earnestly apply’ her skills to maintain peace within her family, which would ‘see peace kept in the country’ (Calendar of state papers, Ireland, 1509–73, 40–41).
The queen’s request placed great strain on Joan’s marriage; Ormond enjoyed more favour in London, yet to urge Desmond to give way in their disputes risked betraying her duties as a supportive wife (lord justice William Fitzwilliam cautioned Joan to act for her son’s benefit, but only if it did not transgress the behaviour of an honourable wife). Protracted negotiations with English officials ensured that Desmond was detained in London from January 1562 until November 1563, and his trust in her began to deteriorate; he eventually accused her of being the cause of his imprisonment. Joan travelled to London both to petition for her husband’s return to Ireland and to seek the English administration’s protection from her husband’s mistrust, requesting that they reassure Desmond that her actions were faultless and intended to equally secure the happiness of both her son and husband. After Desmond’s return to Ireland, they lived relatively quietly until her death on 2 January 1565.
Through her marriages and her careful management of the Ormond inheritance during the 10th earl’s minority, Joan Fitzgerald played an important role in securing and enhancing the power of her son and her husbands. The extent to which she was a stabilising influence on both Desmond and Ormond was evidenced by the explosive escalation of their feud shortly after her death; both men met in battle at Affane on 1 February 1565, at which Desmond was taken prisoner. She was buried at Askeaton, Co. Limerick, but her tomb was desecrated by Sir Nicholas Malby, commander of Munster, when Desmond rebelled in 1579.