Fitzgerald, Katherine (c. 1500–1604)
Fitzgerald, Katherine (c. 1500–1604)
Countess of Desmond. Name variations: The old Countess of Desmond. Born around 1500; died in 1604; daughter of Sir John Fitzgerald, lord of Decies; married Thomas Fitzgerald, 12th earl of Desmond, after 1505 (d. 1534, at age 80); children: one daughter.
Katherine Fitzgerald, countess of Desmond, was the second wife of Thomas Fitzgerald, 12th earl of Desmond. Legend has it that she lived to be 140; it is more likely, however, that she lived to be around 104. 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.