August
1588 was the Armada year. The King of Spain’s great fleet was foiled in its attack on England, and many of the vessels, ” flying from the wind and their enemies,” doubled round the north of Scotland, and went to pieces on the rocky coasts of western and northern Ireland. The majority of the crews were drowned ; while, of those who came alive to land, not a few found foes more cruel than the waves awaiting them.
The English authorities hanged almost all whom they could find. Though some few of the Irish chiefs showed little humanity towards the fugitives, they, for the most part, were true to their country’s traditions of hospitality. The common people, too, generally sheltered the Spaniards, till an opportunity offered of sending them home.
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July
The New Earldroms were Kildare, Desmond, Ormonde. It was just when the last of the early Lordships disappeared that there rose into clear prominence three familks which from that time became the conspicuous leaders of the Irish of Norman descent. They were not late arrivals ; their founders had been amongst the earliest settlers, but hitherto they had occupied a secondary position to the Marshalls, De Lacys, De Burghs and others.
Unlike most of these families, their interests lay altogether in Ireland, and they were only remotely concerned in English politics. They were the Fits-Geralds of Leinster, the Fitz-Geralds of Munster, and the Butlers, the respective heads of which were now created Earls of Kildare (1318), of Desmond (1330), and of Ormonde (1328).
The original location of Geraldines and Butlers in the lordship of Leinster, and the development of their influence have been already indicated (page 127). Although the Geraldines had lost their possessions in Connacht, they were powerful elsewhere.
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