Robert Plunkett, 5th Baron of Dunsany

Robert Plunkett, 5th Baron Dunsany (died 1559) was an Anglo-Irish nobleman.

He was the son of Edward Plunkett, 4th Baron of Dunsany and Amy de Bermingham. He succeeded to the title in 1521 when his father was killed assisting the Earl of Surrey, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, in putting down a rebellion by the O'Connor and O'Carroll families.^[1]

He married firstly Eleanor Darcy, daughter of Sir William Darcy of Platten. They had thirteen children including:

• John, who died before his father leaving an only daughter;
• Christopher, 6th Baron of Dunsany;
• Gerald, who married Catherine Eustace, daughter of Thomas Eustace, 1st Viscount Baltinglass;
• Margaret, who married Walter Marward, Baron Skryne;
• Elizabeth, who married Walter FitzGerald, a younger son of Gerald FitzGerald, 8th Earl of Kildare.^[1]

Dunsany married secondly Jenet Sarsfield who had already buried two husbands and was to have six in all. They cannot have been married more than two years when Dunsany died in March 1559; their two sons apparently died in infancy. Despite the brevity of the marriage Jenet took great pride in her rank; she preferred in later life to be called Lady Dunsany and was buried under that title.^[2]

During the rebellion of Silken Thomas, Dunsany, whose daughter was married to Thomas's uncle Walter FitzGerald, fell under suspicion of treason, and in the autumn of 1535 he was denounced to the Crown as a ringleader of the rebellion who should be attainted. In the event Henry VIII, having virtually destroyed the FitzGerald family, was prepared to be merciful to the other nobles of the Pale, and Dunsany escaped unscathed.^[3] His later career suggests that he had regained the Crown's trust: he took his seat in the Irish House of Lords in the Parliament of 1541; he was one of the nobles who confirmed the election of Sir Francis Bryan as Governor of Ireland in 1549; and in 1557 he accompanied the Lord Deputy, Sussex, on an expedition against the McDonnells of Ulster.^[4]

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