Thomas Desmond, 6th Earl

Alfred Webb

A Compendium of Irish Biography

1878

Desmond, Thomas, 6th Earl, son of preceding, was deprived of his earldom in 1418, on account of his marriage with Catherine, daughter of William MacCormac of Abbeyfeale, one of his dependants. The romantic incident of his meeting Catherine as he was out hunting, is told in Moore's lines, commencing:

"By the Feal's wave benighted,
Not a star in the skies,
To thy door by love lighted,
I first saw those eyes."

The alliance was so unfavourably regarded by his clan, that he abandoned his estates, and retired to France. 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." It is said that by his wife he left two sons — Maurice, ancestor of the FitzGeralds of Adare and Broghill, and John Claragh, who died in 1452.

Sources

52. Burke, Sir Bernard: Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages. London, 1866.

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