Second Desmond Rebellion

Second Desmond Rebellion
Part of the Desmond Rebellions
Date18 July 1579 – 11 November 1583
Location
Provinces of Munster and Leinster, Ireland
Result

English victory

Belligerents
FitzGeralds of Desmond
O'Byrnes
Spain Spain and Papal troops
 Kingdom of England and Irish allies
Commanders and leaders
In Munster:
James FitzMaurice FitzGerald
John FitzGerald
James Fitzedmund Fitzgerald
Gerald FitzGerald
Nicholas Sanders
In Leinster:
Fiach Mac Aodh Ó Broin
James Eustace, 3rd Viscount Baltinglass
Arthur Grey
John Perrot
William Pelham
William Stanley
Thomas Butler
Strength
Unknown Unknown
Casualties and losses
Unknown Unknown

The Second Desmond Rebellion (1579–1583) was the more widespread and bloody of the two Desmond Rebellions in Ireland launched by the FitzGerald Dynasty of Desmond in Munster against English rule. The second rebellion began in July 1579 when James FitzMaurice FitzGerald landed in Ireland with a force of Papal troops, triggering an insurrection across the south of Ireland on the part of the Desmond dynasty, their allies, and others who were dissatisfied for various reasons with English government of the country. The rebellion ended with the 1583 death of Gerald FitzGerald, 14th Earl of Desmond, and the defeat of the rebels.

The rebellion was in equal part a protest by feudal lords against the intrusion of central government into their domains; an Irish clan reaction to English policies that were destroying traditional Gaelic culture; and a religious conflict, in which the rebellion's leaders considered themselves defending Catholicism against religious persecution by a Protestant queen who had been pronounced a tyrant and a heretic in 1570 by Pope Pius V's bull Regnans in Excelsis.

The result of the rebellions was the destruction of the Desmond dynasty and the subsequent Munster Plantations – the colonisation of Munster with English settlers. In addition, the fighting laid waste to a large part of the south of Ireland. War-related famine and disease are thought to have killed up to a third of Munster's pre-war population.