An Irishwoman’s Diary Episode 9: Queen Elizabeth’s ‘angel of peace’ - Countess Joan Fitzgerald

This is series 2 of An Irishwoman’s Diary from The Deirdre
O’Shaughnessy Podcast, search in your podcast app for An
Irishwoman’s Diary to find the six-episode Series 1.  


Countess Joan Fitzgerald was a pivotal figure in medieval
Ireland, immensely wealthy and powerful, but as a woman it was
her marriages that defined her power.


From the immensely wealthy Fitzgerald family – the Desmonds of
Munster, who owned ten castles, her first marriage at age 16 was
to James Butler, an Ormond of Kilkenny, aimed at linking the two
great Houses.


His death by poisoning caused some concerns in London – she was
too powerful to be left to her own devices – and she was married
off to an Englishman, Sir Francis Bryan, who was referred to by
Henry VIII as his ‘Vicar of Hell’.


She chose her own third husband from among her own allegiances,
and made peace between the warring Ormonds and Desmonds, later
being described by Queen Elizabeth as ‘the angel of peace’. The
peace she negotiated fell apart just a month after her death.


Read Clodagh’s column here: Clodagh Finn: Formidable medieval
women deserve much more recognition


An Irishwoman's Diary series 1: Meet the Irish women who left
their mark on history


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