Life
Leader of Desmond Rebellion, together with Nicholas Sanders and Oviedo,
bringing the Papal Standard to Munster in 1579; landed at Dingle, opening
the rebellion with the declaration, ‘This was is undertaken for the
defence of the Catholic religion against the heretics. Pope Gregory XIII
had chosen us for general captain in this same war. ... We fight not against
the lawful sceptre and honourable throne of England but against a tyrant
which refuseth to hear Christ speaking by his vicar’; d. prior to
arrival of Papal expedition in skirmish with the Burkes.
Notes
Fitzmaurice is treated as a key figure in the sectarianisation of Irish
history by Sean O’Faolain, in The Irish, 1947, pp.70, 108.)
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)