| Katherine FitzGerald | |
 | |
| Birth: | c.1504 Dromana, Waterford, Ireland |
| Death: | 1604 Dromana, Waterford, Ireland |
| Age: | c.100 years |
| Country: |  IRL
|
| Centenarian | |
Katherine FitzGerald, Countess of Desmond (c.1504 – 1604) was possibly one of the first known centenarians ever at the possible age of at least 100 years. She was a noblewoman of the Anglo-Norman FitzGerald dynasty in Ireland. English writers of the Tudor period, including Sir Walter Raleigh, helped popularise "the old Countess of Desmond" as a nickname for her, due to her longevity.
Biography[]
Katherine Fitzgerald, countess of Desmond, was the second wife of Thomas Fitzgerald, 12th earl of Desmond. She was the daughter of Sir John Fitzgerald, lord of Decies. Some sources claim that she was born at Dromana, in County Waterford in 1500 or 1504. Legend has it that she lived to be 140; it is more likely, however, that she lived to be around 104, when she died in 1604. In his Itinerary, published in 1617, Fynes Morison states that "in our time" she had lived to be "about" 140 but was still capable of walking three or four miles to market. To add to the myth, stories abounded that she died of concussion after being hit by an apple, sometimes a walnut, sometimes a cherry, that fell from a tree.
In later life, Lady Desmond was party to a property dispute typical of late-Tudor Ireland (1485–1603). Her husband had granted her a life tenancy in Inchiquin Castle, about 5 miles southwest of the town of Youghal, in Munster. Upon the Countess Desmond's death the castle was to revert to the line of the Earls of Desmond. In 1575, she passed title to the castle and lands in trust, by deed, to the incumbent earl, Gerald FitzGerald, who then passed it in trust to his servants. Following the earl's attainder in 1582, whereby his estate fell to the Crown after the Desmond Rebellions, Inchiquin Castle and its lands were granted to New England colonist Sir Walter Raleigh who then leased out some of the land while preserving the life interest of the Countess in the castle. She survived far beyond Raleigh's expectations, and Sir Richard Boyle, who purchased Raleigh's colonial possessions in Ireland, including the castle, brought proceedings to evict the old lady.
A legend claims that, to protect her interests in the castle, the impoverished "old Countess" set out from Cork in 1604. After sailing to Bristol, she walked the road to London with her invalid 90-year-old daughter who she pulled along in a cart. In the 19th century it was claimed that this story arose from a confusion with another dowager countess of Desmond, who travelled to London to petition Elizabeth I. In London, her petition was presented to King James I. She returned to Inchiquin and died later the same year.
Lady Desmond reportedly walked every week to her local market town, a distance of 4–5 miles, even after her return from London in 1604. It was said that all her teeth had been renewed just a few years earlier. She died after falling from a tree. Historians of the time disagreed as to the type of tree: Robert Sidney stated it was a nut tree, and that she fell, hurt her thigh, contracted fever and died. Another attributed her death to have been caused by a fall from a cherry tree she was picking. She is believed to be buried, with her husband, in a Franciscan Friary at Youghal. Clodagh Tait has questioned the generally accepted date of death of 1604, citing evidence that Lady Katherine may have died as early as 1575.
Raleigh, in his History of the World, maintained that Lady Desmond married in the time of King Edward IV (1461–1483), making her at least 135 years old at the time of her death. She was said to have danced with King Richard III, then Duke of Gloucester. In fact, she could not have been married earlier than 1505, as her husband's first wife, Sheila (Gilis) the daughter of the lord of Muskerry, was still alive in that year. The tradition that she died at age 140 was recounted in Fynes Moryson's Itinerary and Sir Francis Bacon's History of Life. Harington, writing in 1605, referred to a man who lived longer than 140 years, and to a woman, "and she a countess," who lived longer than 120. If Katherine FitzGerald married in her early twenties, this latter description would match her. Historian Ian Mortimer asserted that her age was about 100, making her a rare although not unique centenarian of the Elizabethan age. She is believed to be buried, with her husband, at the site of a former Franciscan Friary at Youghal, where many Geraldines were buried. The monastery was later destroyed and no monuments remain.
There are two portraits of Lady Desmond whose provenance is confirmed and a third whose authenticity is less well-settled.
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