Eleanor, Countess of Desmond: A Heroine of Tudor Ireland

Apart from the occasional or passing reference, historians have ignored or forgotten her. Now in a vigorous, moving biography, Anne Chambers writes about the amazing life and the ambitions of this truly extraordinary woman.

A woman of courage and indominable will, with an almost superhuman ability to withstand suffering, loss and deprivation, Eleanor, Countess of Desmond was relentless in pursuit of her own and her husband's interests.

Eleanor shared the Tudor and Elizabethan stages with great and colorful characters. Machiavellian as they at intrigue and negotiation and ever mindful of her central purpose, she outlived both opponents and supporters.

Wife of the rebel 15th Earl of Desmond, she became to the armies pursuing them in the Munster hills an obsessive myth, "object of their fear, hatred and lust; the she-devil... What self-respecting woman-and a Countess to boot-would willingly live like a wild animal in the woods and bogs?"