Joan Fitzgerald, Countess of Ormond

Joan Fitzgerald, Countess of Ormond, Countess of Desmond (Irish: Siobhán Nic Gearailt) (died 1565), was an Irish noblewoman and heiress, a member of the Old English FitzGerald family, who were also known as the "Geraldines". She married three times. Her first husband was James Butler, 9th Earl of Ormond, who had been proposed as a bridegroom for Anne Boleyn in 1522 to settle a dispute over the Ormond title and estates. Her second was Francis Bryan, a courtier and lord justice of Ireland. Her third was Gerald FitzGerald, 14th Earl of Desmond. With her last marriage she brought a period of peace between the FitzGeralds of Desmond and the Butlers, who were hereditary enemies. After her death her widower resumed the old feud by attacking her son Thomas Butler, 10th Earl of Ormond. During her third marriage she carried on an amicable correspondence with Queen Elizabeth I of England, who recognised Lady Desmond's skill in diplomacy, and relied upon her to restore and keep the precarious peace in southern Ireland. Birth and origins Joan was probably born in 1514 in Munster, Ireland. She was the only daughter and heiress of James fitz Maurice FitzGerald by his wife Amy O'Brien. Her father was Earl of Desmond. He is here numbered the 10th, following the second edition of the Complete Peerage, but he is also numbered the 11th. Her father's family were the FitzGeralds of Desmond, a noble cadet branch of the Old English Geraldines, of which the FitzGeralds of Kildare were the senior branch.