An Irishwoman's Diary: How Countess Joan Fitzgerald became 'the angel of peace'

Countess Joan Fitzgerald was a pivotal figure in medieval Ireland and a powerful one 

Countess Joan Fitzgerald's marriages defined her power.

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.