Jenet Sarsfield, Baroness Dunsany (c. 1528–1598) was an Anglo-Irish noblewoman who lived in Dublin during the Tudor era. She is chiefly memorable for having married no less than six husbands.

She was born in County Meath, possibly at Sarsfieldstown near Laytown, in about 1528, daughter of the merchant John Sarsfield; very little appears to be known about her mother. Her brother William was an alderman of Dublin.^[1] Jenet's first husband was Robert Shilyngford (or Shillenford), who was Lord Mayor of Dublin in 1534–5. They had a daughter, Katherine, who is believed to have been the only one of Jenet's children who survived to adulthood. Katherine married Thomas Talbot and had issue, including Jenet, who married Robert Barnewall, 7th Baron Trimlestown.

After Robert's death, Jenet married James Luttrell, third son of Sir Thomas Luttrell, Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas; James was High Sheriff of County Dublin in 1556, and died in 1557. Jenet was pregnant at the time of his death, but their child probably died at or shortly after birth.

After James Luttrell's death, Jenet married as his second wife Robert Plunkett, 5th Baron of Dunsany. The marriage was short-lived. They had two sons who probably died in infancy.^[2] Jenet in later years was usually described as the Dowager Lady Dunsany, despite her three further marriages.

Lord Dunsany died in 1559, and Jenet quickly remarried the former Lord Chancellor of Ireland, Sir Thomas Cusack.^[3] Cusack, who had been born in 1490, was almost old enough to be her grandfather. Although he was an immensely respected public figure, his own marital career had been somewhat troubled. He had divorced his first wife Joan Hussey, and later refused to acknowledge that they had ever been married.^[4] His second wife, Maud Darcy, was widely believed to have conspired with her future second husband, Richard FitzGerald, to murder her first husband, Baron Skryne. Both were deeply implicated in the Rebellion of Silken Thomas, Richard's nephew: Richard was executed, and Maud was required to seek a pardon for her act of treason.

Maud's marriage to Cusack was very happy (he refers to her as his "wife beloved" on the family memorial at Trevet). There is no evidence that Cusack and Jenet were unhappy, although she quarrelled bitterly with her stepson Edward Cusack. From Cusack's point of view, her wealth was undoubtedly a consideration in the decision to marry, as he was heavily in debt to the Crown.^[5]

Dunsoghly Castle, which has a memorial to Jenet and her fifth husband, Sir John Plunket.

Her fifth husband was another distinguished elderly judge, Sir John Plunket, the Lord Chief Justice of Ireland. It was his third marriage and, though he was a few years younger than Thomas Cusack, he must still have been over seventy when he married Jenet. The marriage seems to have been happy enough, although Plunket is known to have resented being dragged into Jenet's quarrel with her stepson Edward Cusack.^[10] He died in 1582: in his will, although he lists an impressive inventory of valuables, he states that his marriage to Jenet had left him none the richer.^[11] They lived mainly as Dunsoghly Castle near Finglas, which survives today. In the adjoining chapel is a tablet displaying the initials of Plunket and Jenet, evidence of a happy marriage.^[12]

Dardistown Castle, where Jenet lived in old age.

Jenet made a sixth marriage to John Bellew, who outlived her. In her last years she lived at Dardistown Castle, to which she made extensive additions. After her death, it passed to her son-in-law Thomas Talbot.

She died in 1598, when she was aged about seventy: she chose not to be buried with any of her husbands but in a tomb of her own, which still exists, at Moorchurch, near modern-day Julianstown in County Meath. She was buried under the title Lady Dunsany: her insistence on the use of this title, long after Lord Dunsany's death, confirms her reputation as a woman of exceptional independence and strength of character.