Sir Thomas Desmond, 12th Earl

Alfred Webb

A Compendium of Irish Biography

1878

Desmond, Sir Thomas, 12th Earl, uncle of preceding, brother of 10th Earl, born in 1454, succeeded on his nephew's death in 1529. He was known as "Sir Thomas the Bald," and "Thomas the Victorious." "Far-famed was he in feats of arms; in nine battles did he win the palm of victory... Another subject for congratulation had this Earl — the two Lords of Muskerry fell beneath his sword."[147a] He took up the intrigues of his predecessor. Lodge tells us that "the King without hesitation established him in the earldom, merely endeavouring with friendly phrases to induce him to send his grandson and heir to his Majesty's court; which, with phrases equally amiable, the Earl showed the impossibility of his doing." Eventually embarrassments attendant on the question of the succession obliged him to make every profession of loyalty to the King. He died at Rathkeale in 1534, aged 80, and was buried at Youghal.

Sources

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

147. Geraldine Documents: Edited by Rev. James Graves: in Journal of the Archaeological Association of Ireland, October, 1869.

147a. Gillespie, Major-General Sir Robert R., Memoir. London, 1816.

216. Lodge's Peerage of Ireland, Revised and Enlarged by Mervyn Archdall. 7 vols. Dublin, 1789.

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