Castle Maine, also recorded as Castle Magne and Castlemaine, was a

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

castle A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...

located at what is now

Castlemaine, County Kerry Castlemaine () is a village in County Kerry, Ireland. It lies on the N70 road (Ireland), N70 national secondary road between Killorglin and Tralee. History The village takes its name from the castle of Castle Maine that once stood on a bridg ...

. The castle, built in 1215, stood on a bridge over the River Maine. A defensive structure of considerable importance in

Munster Munster ( or ) is the largest of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the south west of the island. In early Ireland, the Kingdom of Munster was one of the kingdoms of Gaelic Ireland ruled by a "king of over-kings" (). Following the Nor ...

, it belonged first to the

Earls of Desmond Earl of Desmond ( meaning Earl of South Munster) is a title of nobility created by the English monarch in the peerage of Ireland. The title has been created four times. It was first awarded in 1329 to Maurice FitzGerald, 1st Earl of Desmond, Maur ...

and later to the

English Crown This list of kings and reigning queens of the Kingdom of England begins with Alfred the Great, who initially ruled Wessex, one of the seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms which later made up modern England. Alfred styled himself king of the Anglo-Sax ...

. Castle Maine was besieged on several occasions, including during the

Nine Years' War The Nine Years' War was a European great power conflict from 1688 to 1697 between Kingdom of France, France and the Grand Alliance (League of Augsburg), Grand Alliance. Although largely concentrated in Europe, fighting spread to colonial poss ...

when the garrison resisted for thirteen months. It was destroyed in 1652 during the

Cromwellian conquest of Ireland The Cromwellian conquest of Ireland (1649–1653) was the re-conquest of Ireland by the Commonwealth of England, initially led by Oliver Cromwell. It forms part of the 1641 to 1652 Irish Confederate Wars, and wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Three ...

History

Castle Maine was built by Maurice Fitzgerald, possibly a son of

Thomas FitzMaurice FitzGerald Thomas FitzMaurice, Lord OConnello, (c. 1145 – 1213) of Shanid, was the eldest son of Maurice FitzGerald, Lord of Lanstephan by his wife, Alice (daughter of Arnulf de Montgomery). Thomas was the progenitorBernard Burke, Burke, Berna ...

, in 1215. The structure was located in the middle of a substantial stone bridge crossing the River Maine, which marked the southern boundary of territory newly conquered by the FitzGeralds from the

MacCarthy Mor dynasty MacCarthy (), also spelled Macarthy, McCarthy or McCarty, is an Irish clan originating from Munster, an area they ruled during the Middle Ages. It was divided into several septs (branches) of which the MacCarthy Reagh, MacCarthy of Muskerry, ...

in the early thirteenth century. The river regularly flooded during heavy rains and became impassable, giving the crossing point at Castle Maine strategic significance. A drawing of the castle from 1600 survives, showing the castle as having two central towers of unequal height, protected by walls and with a

portcullis A portcullis () is a heavy, vertically closing gate typically found in medieval fortifications. It consists of a latticed Grille (architecture), grille made of wood and/or metal, which slides down grooves inset within each jamb of the gateway. ...

and

drawbridge A drawbridge or draw-bridge is a type of moveable bridge typically at the entrance to a castle or tower surrounded by a moat. In some forms of English, including American English, the word ''drawbridge'' commonly refers to all types of moveable b ...

facing towards the southern end of the bridge. The foundations of the bridge remain, and are unusually broad with large arches, indicating the size of the structure which once stood above them. A local legend that the castle was built jointly by the FitzGeralds and MacCarthy Mor is fictitious.

Maurice FitzGerald, 2nd Earl of Desmond Maurice FitzMaurice FitzGerald, 2nd Earl of Desmond (d. 1358 Year 1358 ( MCCCLVIII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. Events January–December * January 10 – Muhammad II as Said becomes ruler of the ...

is recorded as having died at the castle in 1358. In 1510, an army led by

Gerald FitzGerald, 9th Earl of Kildare Gerard FitzGerald, 9th Earl of Kildare (1487 – 12 December 1534; Irish: ''Gearóid Óg Mac Gearailt'', meaning "Young Gerald FitzGerald"), was a leading figure in 16th-century Irish history. In 1513 he inherited the title of Earl of Kildar ...

took the castle, although it later returned to the control of the Desmonds.

Desmond Rebellions

During the

Desmond Rebellions The Desmond Rebellions occurred in 1569–1573 and 1579–1583 in the Irish province of Munster. They were rebellions by the Earl of Desmond, the head of the FitzGerald dynasty in Munster, and his followers, the Geraldines and their allies, ...

, Castle Maine became one of the last remaining possessions of the Desmonds and was attacked by the English army of

John Perrot Sir John Perrot (7 November 1528 – 3 November 1592) was a member of the Welsh gentry who served as Lord Deputy of Ireland under Queen Elizabeth I of England during the Tudor conquest of Ireland. It was formerly speculated that he was an ille ...

in 1571. Perrot summoned the chieftains of Munster to meet him at the castle with their forces on 24 June 1571, in order to lay siege to the fortress. In a letter to

Lord Burghley William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley (13 September 15204 August 1598), was an English statesman, the chief adviser of Queen Elizabeth I for most of her reign, twice Secretary of State (1550–1553 and 1558–1572) and Lord High Treasurer from ...

, Perrot emphasised the importance of the castle and the "necessity of winning it".

Gerald FitzGerald, 14th Earl of Desmond Gerald FitzGerald, 14th Earl of Desmond ( – 1583), also counted as 15th or 16th, owned large part of the Irish province of Munster. In 1565 he fought the private Battle of Affane against his neighbours, the Butlers. After this, he was for so ...

directed his cousin, James Fitzmaurice, to defend the castle. Despite use of cannon against the castle walls, Perrot was forced to abandon the siege at the end of July 1571 as he was running out of

gunpowder Gunpowder, also commonly known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur, charcoal (which is mostly carbon), and potassium nitrate, potassium ni ...

. A year later, in June 1572, Perrot again laid siege to the castle assisted by Maurice Roche, 6th Viscount Fermoy and Donald McCarthy, 1st Earl of Clancare. Perrot's forces reputedly included Scottish

gallowglass The Gallowglass (also spelled galloglass, gallowglas or galloglas; from meaning "foreign warriors") were a class of elite mercenary warriors who were principally members of the Norse-Gaelic clans of Ireland and Scotland between the mid 13th ...

and native Irish components. The garrison of thirty men, defending Castle Maine, surrendered after a twelve-week siege had exhausted their provisions. From this point Castle Maine became an English Crown fortress. The castle was occupied by English soldiers with a standing garrison of twelve men and placed under the command of a Constable, the first of which was John Herbert. Perrot submitted a report to London in which he recommended that the castle should be re-edified and that the lands of the nearby

Killagha Abbey Killagha Abbey of Our Lady of Bello Loco, also called Kilcolman Abbey, is a ruined Augustinian abbey and former manor house in County Kerry, Ireland. The abbey is 1 km north-west of Milltown, near the River Maine. History The abbey was f ...

be annexed to it. On the night of 24 December 1573, the castle gates were unlocked to a group of men loyal to Desmond, who seized the castle and ejected the English garrison. The following day, the Prior of Killagha Abbey came to the castle to give thanks for its return to Desmond control. An English Crown inquiry into the loss of Castle Maine was opened in 1574; in January 1574

Queen Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. She was the last and longest reigning monarch of the House of Tudor. Her eventful reign, and its effect on history ...

wrote to Sir William FitzWilliam complaining of Desmond's "undutiful behaviour in taking Castle Maine". In September 1574, Desmond surrendered Castle Maine to the English as part of the settlement to end the rebellion. In 1576 the castle had a garrison of "3 horsemen, 13 footmen". On 15 February 1578, Desmond petitioned the Queen to be "restored to the possession of Castle Maine"; this request was rejected. In 1580, during the

Second Desmond Rebellion 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 County Desmond, Desmond in Munster against English rule. The second rebellion began in ...

, the castle was visited by William Pelham and reinforced with men and supplies in anticipation of a Spanish attack, which did not materialise. Nonetheless, the Constable of Castle Maine, Andrew Martyn, was killed while leading the castle's garrison in the

Siege of Smerwick The siege of Smerwick took place at Ard na Caithne (the Hill of the Arbutus Tree, known in English as Smerwick) in November 1580, during the Second Desmond Rebellion in Ireland. A force of between 400 and 700 Papal freelance soldiers, mostly ...

. In 1587, Queen Elizabeth sent an order to the

Dublin Castle administration Dublin Castle was the centre of the government of Ireland under English and later British rule. "Dublin Castle" is used metonymically to describe British rule in Ireland. The Castle held only the executive branch of government and the Privy Cou ...

to disband Castle Maine's garrison and give the property to

Sir Valentine Browne Sir Valentine Browne (died 1589), of Croft, Lincolnshire, was auditor, treasurer and victualler of Berwick-upon-Tweed. He acquired large estates in Ireland during the Plantation of Munster, in particular the seignory of Molahiffe. He lived at ...

, however the order was never enacted. In 1588, Sir William Herbert petitioned to have the castle demolished on the basis of its cost and insinuating that its Constable, Thomas Spring, was more loyal to the Irish than to England.

Nine Years' War

The castle returned to importance during the

. By December 1597,

Sir Thomas Norris Sir Thomas Norris (1556–1599) was an English soldier. He sat in the Irish House of Commons, and was made Lord President of Munster in Ireland. His last name is sometimes spelt Norreys. Family He was the fifth of the six sons of Henry Norri ...

recorded that it was the last remaining castle in

outside Cork which had not surrendered to forces loyal to

Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone (; – 20 July 1616) was an Irish lord and key figure of the Nine Years' War. Known as the "Great Earl", he led the confederacy of Irish lords against the English Crown in resistance to the Tudor conquest of Ir ...

. In October 1598, a force led by the rebel

James FitzThomas FitzGerald James fitz Thomas FitzGerald, called the Súgán Earl (died 1608), was a pretender to the Earldom of Desmond who made his claim and led a rebellion after the last earl, Gerald FitzGerald, 14th Earl of Desmond had been killed in 1583. The preten ...

laid siege to the castle. In January 1599, he departed, leaving 200 men to continue the siege. The castle surrendered the following November, having endured thirteenth months of siege without support from the English garrison at Cork. The Constable, Sir Warham St Leger was heavily criticised for the castle's loss. James FitzThomas FitzGerald appointed Thomas Oge Fitzgerald as the Constable and moved his personal correspondence to be stored at the castle. Oge, who had been loyal to Desmond, subsequently surrendered the castle to the English

Lord President of Munster The post of Lord President of Munster was the most important office in the English government of the Irish province of Munster from its introduction in the Elizabethan era for a century, to 1672, a period including the Desmond Rebellions in Munste ...

George Carew, 1st Earl of Totnes George Carew, 1st Earl of Totnes (29 May 1555 – 27 March 1629), known as Sir George Carew between 1586 and 1605 and as The Lord Carew between 1605 and 1626, served under Elizabeth I during the Tudor conquest of Ireland and was appointed Pre ...

, in November 1600.

Charles Wilmot, 1st Viscount Wilmot Charles Wilmot, 1st Viscount Wilmot of Athlone (c. 1572 – 1644) was an English soldier active in Ireland. Life He was the son of Edward Wilmot of Culham (otherwise of Newent, Gloucestershire and Witney, Oxfordshire) and Elizabeth Stafford. O ...

was appointed Constable for the Crown.

Seventeenth century

In 1620 the records of the

Privy Council of Ireland His or Her Majesty's Privy Council in Ireland, commonly called the Privy Council of Ireland, Irish Privy Council, or in earlier centuries the Irish Council, was the institution within the Dublin Castle administration which exercised formal executi ...

noted that the bridge at Castle Maine was still in need of repair, having suffered from successive sieges. When the

Irish Rebellion of 1641 The Irish Rebellion of 1641 was an uprising in Kingdom of Ireland, Ireland, initiated on 23 October 1641 by Catholic gentry and military officers. Their demands included an end to anti-Catholic discrimination, greater Irish self-governance, and ...

broke out, Patrick Fitzmaurice, 19th Baron Kerry was directed to appoint Thomas Spring (the second son the earlier constable) as Constable. Soon afterwards, the castle was attacked by Daniel McCarthy of the

Irish Catholic Confederates Confederate Ireland, also referred to as the Irish Catholic Confederation, was a period of Irish Catholic self-government between 1642 and 1652, during the Eleven Years' War. Formed by Catholic aristocrats, landed gentry, clergy and military ...

and taken after a few days siege, along with some stores and two obsolete cannon. The castle was held by the Irish Confederates until 1649, when it was surrendered to David Crosbie acting on behalf of

Murrough O'Brien, 1st Earl of Inchiquin Murrough MacDermod O'Brien, 1st Earl of Inchiquin (September 1614 – 9 September 1673), was an Irish nobleman and soldier, who came from one of the most powerful families in Munster. Known as ''Murchadh na dTóiteán'' ("Murrough the Burner"), ...

. The castle was demolished shortly thereafter, in 1652, after it fell to

New Model Army The New Model Army or New Modelled Army was a standing army formed in 1645 by the Parliamentarians during the First English Civil War, then disbanded after the Stuart Restoration in 1660. It differed from other armies employed in the 1639 t ...

troops under the command of

Edmund Ludlow Edmund Ludlow (c. 1617–1692) was an English parliamentarian, best known for his involvement in the execution of Charles I, and for his ''Memoirs'', which were published posthumously in a rewritten form and which have become a major source ...

. Despite the destruction of the castle, Constables (with a salary of 2 s 3 d per day), continued to be appointed as an office of

sinecure A sinecure ( or ; from the Latin , 'without', and , 'care') is a position with a salary or otherwise generating income that requires or involves little or no responsibility, labour, or active service. The term originated in the medieval church, ...

until 1828.

Constables of Castle Maine

The Constables of Castle Maine were appointed by the English Crown between 1572 and 1828 to command the castle's small garrison and maintain English authority over the locality. Constables were permitted to hold two fairs and were granted rights to fisheries on the River Maine and in

Castlemaine Harbour Castlemaine Harbour is a Ramsar site, Special Area of Conservation, Special Protection Area and national nature reserve of approximately located in County Kerry, Ireland. Features Castlemaine Harbour was legally protected as a national natur ...

as a source of income additional to their salary. In 1788 the appointment is recorded as having been worth £300 per year in income. *John Herbert: 1572–1573 :Andrew Herbert (Vice-Constable): 1573 *Captain William Apsley: 1574–1579 *Andrew Martyn: 1579–1580 *Captain Cheston: 1580–1583 :Edward Spring (Vice-Constable): 1583 *John Savage: 1583–1584 *Captain Thomas Spring: 1584–1597 * Sir Warham St Leger: 1597–1599 : Sir Edward Denny (Vice-Constable): 1597 *Thomas Oge Fitzgerald of Ardnagragh: 1599–1600 *

: 1601–1608 * Thomas Roper, 1st Viscount Baltinglass: 1608–1638 * Sir Edward Denny: 1638–1641 *Thomas Spring: 1641 *''Vacant'': 1641–1691 *

Sir Richard Cox, 1st Baronet Sir Richard Cox, 1st Baronet PC (25 March 1650 – 3 May 1733) was an Irish lawyer and judge. He served as Chief Justice of the Common Pleas for Ireland from 1701 to 1703, Lord Chancellor of Ireland from 1703 to 1707 and as Lord Chief Justice ...

: 1691–1733 *Charles Bodens: ?–1762–? *Major William Botet: ?–1810 *Colonel James Cuffe: 1810–1828

References

Notes

Sources

* * * * * * {{Historic Irish houses 1215 establishments in Ireland Buildings and structures in County Kerry Castles in County Kerry **