Government attention was next directed to the province of Munster, and in particular to the rival Anglo-Norman earls, Ormond and Desmond. At this point the government had to contend with a strengthening of Catholic enthusiasm on the part of many of the Old English. Led by Sir Edmund Butler, they utilized their position in the Irish parliament to weaken anti-Catholic legislation, often at the price of strengthening the process of political centralization and dilution of Gaelic custom. However, when a new step in the Anglicization began, that of establishing presidencies in Connacht and Munster to implement the direct rule of the heretofore quasi-autonomous regions, a second Geraldine revolt ensued. The revolt was provoked both by a combination of land grabbing by English adventurers, such as Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, and Sir Peter Carew (who based his claim on a very distant Irish antecedent) and by an enthusiasm for the Catholic Counter-Reformation fueled by papal excommunication of Elizabeth and encouragement to her Catholic subjects to disavow her.
Gerald, the earl of Desmond, was detained in England at the time following his defeat in a struggle over land with the earl of Ormond. His more zealous Catholic cousin, James Fitzmaurice FitzGerald, took his place at home. The previous parliamentary opponent of the reformation, Edmund Butler, joined him in an uprising against both the religious policy and the land grab. Although they were joined in the revolt by other discontented Gaelic families, the rebellion was unsuccessful. The earl of Desmond was allowed to return to Ireland and his cousin went off to the Continent. Sidney had been recalled as lord deputy and resumed a policy of pacification, seeking in particular the consent by the Gaelic and increasingly Gaelicized Old English lords of Connacht, such as the Burkes and Prendergasts, to the new system of laws and titles. Within Connacht, a special court dominated by New English appointees came to dominate the government at the expense of the power of the Anglo-Norman or old English lords of the Pale.
However, on July 18, 1579, James Fitzmaurice FitzGerald landed back in Dingle in Kerry with some soldiers, money, and promises of further assistance from the king of Spain (whose primary attention at the time was taken up in contending with rebellion by Protestants in the Netherlands, who were aided by the English). Basing the rebellion on Pope Gregory XIII's bull of excommunication, he gained the endorsement of the same Gaelic and some Anglo Norman allies who had earlier rebelled. This time the revolt was again suppressed, but more brutally. There was only one instance of Spanish assis-
Tance—a force of 700 landed at Smerwick harbor, also in Dingle, in October 1580 and occupied a fort. The new lord deputy, Leonard Grey, and Sir Walter Raleigh successfully besieged the fort and the Spanish were forced to surrender, after which they were massacred. James Fitzmaurice FitzGerald had been killed earlier in the revolt, as were many of the other leaders. Even his cousin, the earl of Desmond, a reluctant participant, lost his life on November 11, 1583.
The suppression of the second Geraldine revolt was followed by a series of Acts of Attainment whereby the lands of Desmond were taken and the province of Munster subjected to plantation. A half million of the 5 million acres of Munster were to be made available to new settlers, who were required to be English. "Undertakers," who were to be granted up to 12,000 acres each, were to recruit English tenants. Much of the awarding of land for plantation was done quite arbitrarily and exploited native and even Anglo-Norman unfamiliarity with the law. However, the poverty of Munster, consequent to the devastation wrought by the war and an ensuing famine, frustrated the major aim of establishing an English population. Many of the Undertakers were unable to recruit English settlers and, instead, they sublet holdings to the native population. In addition, some of the English, such as Sir Nicholas Browne, an ancestor of the future earls of Kenmare, were themselves Catholics.
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