Gilbert's actions in the south of Ireland played a significant part in the outbreak of the first of the Desmond Rebellions. Sir Peter Carew (d.1575), his Devonshire kinsman, was pursuing a provocative, and somewhat far-fetched, claim to the inheritance of certain lands within the Butler territories in south Leinster. Thomas Butler, 3rd Earl of Ormonde, a bosom companion of Queen Elizabeth's from childhood and head of the Butler dynasty, was absent in England, and the clash of Butler influence with the Carew claim created havoc.