Second Desmond Rebellion

This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (October 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Second Desmond Rebellion
Part of the Desmond Rebellions
Date 18 July 1579 – 11 November 1583 Location Provinces of Munster and Leinster, Ireland Result English victory Famine throughout Munster Plantation of Munster
Belligerents
FitzGeralds of Desmond O'Byrnes 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.