of whom, according to O'Sullivan Beare, were desperadoes the pope wished to get out of Italy. Stukley left Civitavecchia early in 1578 with his troops. Fitz Maurice and Stukley were to rendezvous in Lisbon and proceed to Ireland. However, Stukley decided to lend his troops and support to King Sebastian's expedition to Morocco, where he died at the Battle of Alcacer Quibir on 4 August 1578. Following the diversion of Stukley to Morocco, fitz Maurice set out with the nuncio, Nicholas Sanders, and Matthew de Oviedo from Ferrol in Galicia, Spain on 17 June 1579 with a few troops on his vessel and three Spanish shallops. They captured two English vessels in the channel and landed at Dingle on 17 July 1579, launching the Second Desmond Rebellion. On the 18th they cast anchor in Smerwick, where they garrisoned at Dún an Óir (Fort of Gold), and were joined on the 25th by two galleys with 100 troops. Four days later their ships were captured by the English fleet under the command of Sir William Winter. Having exhorted the Earl of Desmond and the Earl of Kildare, as Geraldine leaders, to fight the heretics, fitz Maurice left the fort to await the arrival of Stukley (who, unknown to him, had been killed at the Battle of Alcácer Quibir in the previous year, during a campaign by King Sebastian of Portugal). Death Fitz Maurice was killed in a skirmish with forces of his cousin Theobald Burke on 18 August 1579 when he went to make a vow at the monastery of the Holy Cross, near Thurles in County Tipperary, but was caught in a skirmish with the forces of his cousin, Theobald Burke, during which he was shot in the hollow of the chest, but cut his way through to Burke and his brother William, both of whom he killed with single strokes of his sword. The battle was won, but close to the scene his injuries overcame him; he made his will and ordered his friends to cut off his head after death so that his enemies might not mutilate his body. He begged his attendants to attest that he had not turned tail on the enemy. They assured him, and asked him to be quiet because enemy soldiers were closing in, but he insisted, "My wounds are clear, my wounds are clear". Upon his death, a kinsman ordered the decapitation