FITZGERALD, Baron Gerald

1150 - 1203  (53 years)  Submit Photo / Document

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• Name	FITZGERALD, Gerald
  Prefix	Baron
  Birth	1150	Windsor, Berkshire, England
  Gender	Male
  Death	15 Jan 1203	Offaly, Kildare, Ireland
  Burial	15 Jan 1203
  WAC	6 Sep 1920	MANTI
  _TAG	Temple
  Headstones	Submit Headstone Photo
  Person ID	I48398	Joseph Smith Sr and Lucy Mack Smith
  Last Modified	19 Aug 2021

  
  

  Father	FITZGERALD, Warden Maurice ,   b. 1100, Windsor, Berkshire, England Windsor, Berkshire, Englandd. 1 Sep 1177, Welford, Berkshire, England (Age 77 years)
  Mother	MONTGOMERY, Alice de ,   b. 1100, Pembroke, Pembrokeshire, Wales Pembroke, Pembrokeshire, Walesd. 1 Sep 1176, Wexford, Wexford, Ireland (Age 76 years)
  Marriage	Abt 1120	Ireland
  Family ID	F21485	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family 1	BERMINGHAM, Eva de ,   b. Abt 1150, England Englandd. Dec 1226, Windsor, Berkshire, England (Age 76 years)
  Children	+ 1. FITZGERALD, Baron Maurice ,   b. 1190, Offaly, Kildare, Ireland Offaly, Kildare, Irelandd. 20 May 1257, Youghal, Cork, Ireland (Age 67 years)
  Family ID	F24887	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	24 Jan 2022

  
  

  Family 2	DE VALOIS, Catherine ,   b. 1150, England Englandd. Abt 1197 (Age 47 years)
  Family ID	F24935	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	24 Jan 2022

  
  

• Notes

  Probably built Maynooth Castle, Maynooth, County Kildare 1203. David Turley's file shows the other wife as the mother of Maurice Fitzgerald 2nd Baron Offaly born about 1195 died 1257. Gerald, the eldest son, was, with his brother Alexander, in that memorable engagement, fought (1173) by his father against Earl Strongbow, Reymond le Grosse, and Miles Cogan, with an handful of men, against O Connor, King of Connaught, besieging them in Dublin with 30,000 soldiers, over whom an entire victory was acquired,--He is aid to be Chief Justice of Ireland; and in the year 1205, was styled Baron of Offaley; but departing this life at Sligo the same year, left issue by Catharine, daughter of Hamo (or Hanno) de Valois, L. J. of Ireland in 1197, two sons, Maurice his successor; and Gerald, who died childless. The Earls of Desmond Lords of the South When William the Conqueror planned the invasion of England about the middle of the 11th century he called to his standard adventurers from all parts of Europe. Among those who followed him and fought with him in the battle of Hastings (1066) was a youth from Florence of the family of the Gherardini. This Gherardini was given the castle and lordship of Windsor as his reward, and his descendants were the Earls of Windsor, the Earls of Essex and the Geraldine family in Ireland (this latter family including the two great houses known as the Earls of Kildare and the Earls of Desmond). The progenitor of the house [Maurice FitzGerald] landed with the Anglo-Norman immigrants in Ireland A.D. 1169. His son Gerald was viceroy of Ireland, dying in 1205. In the second year of the reign of Edward III (1329), descendants of Gerald were created, respectively, Earl of Desmond and Earl of Kildare. The Desmond earldom lasted for over three hundred and fifty years. Sixteen Earls are listed in succession, until 1603. The House of Kildare still exists; the twentieth Earl of Kildare became the first Duke of Leinster in 1766. For three hundred years the Earls of Desmond figured prominently in Irish history. Among them were men of piety and men of learning, men of craft and men of cruelty, men who defied kings, formed the Geraldine leagues, sought alliances with emperors and made defensive treaties with popes. Almost everything that is romantic in medieval history, bright in chivalry, dark in plot and curious in legend comes into the record ot these Geraldines. One of them was known as the poet Earl. One died in the habit of a monk. One sacrificed his earldom to marry for love the daughter of an Irish chieftan. Several of the Earls followed the English kings in the Scotch and French wars. They were partisans of the House of York in the War of the Roses. They were frequently appointed viceroys of Ireland--the highest representative of the English power in that country. They brought the Dominican order into Ireland and built monasteries at Tralee, Youghal, and other places. They were always popular with the native Irish, with whom they inter-married, becoming, as the saying was, "more Irish than the Irish themselves." They spoke and wrote the Irish language and had their brehons and bards in defiance of English law. When the parting of the ways came, at the time of the reformation, they held to the old faith and went down to final defeat and ruin in the so-called Geraldine revolt--essentially a religious war. Alluding to the history of the family, O'Daly says: "Four hundred and fifty years had its branches extended over the four provinces of Ireland; no less than fifty lords and barons paid them tribute, and were ever ready to march under their banners. Besides the palatinate of Kerry, the country, for a hundred and twenty miles in length and fifty in breadth, was theirs. the people did them homage in all their holdings. They had, moreover, one hundred castles and strongholds, numerous seaports, lands that were charming to the eye and rich in fruits. The mountains were theirs, together with the woods; theirs were the rocky coasts and the sweet blue lakes which teemed with fish. Yes, they won all these delightful lands with their good swords, and governed them with their laws. Loved by their own, dreaded by their enemies, they were the delight of princes and the patrons of gifted youth. Oh! but they were a great and glorious race."[1] These lines are from the tribute of Thomas Davis to the Geraldines: "Ye Geraldines! ye Geraldines how royally ye reigned O'er Desmond broad and rich Kildare and English arts disdained. True Geraldines! brave Geraldines as torrents mould the earth, You channelled deep old Ireland's heart by constancy and worth. When Gluckle leaguered Limerick the Irish soldiers gazed To see if in the setting sun dead Desmond's banner blazed."[2] The last of the Desmond family of ascertained lineal connections with the Earls was John Desmond, nephew of the fifteenth or rebel Earl, who died at Barcelona in 1615. His son Gerald, known as Conde de Desmond, died in the service of the Austrian Emperor in 1632. Source: Excerpts from Humphrey J. Desmond, "The Desmond Genealogy" in A Memoir of Thomas Desmond, with a Chapter on the Desmond Genealogy (Milwaukee: privately printed, 1905), pp. 5-20. This selection has been revised and edited by William Desmond ©2003 Notes: [1] O'Daly, Dominic, O.P., Initium, Incremento et Exitus Familiae Geraldinorum ac Persecutionis Haereticorum Descriptio, first published Lisbon, 1655, trans. C.P. Meeham, Dublin: James Duffy, 1878, p. 131. [2] The Geraldines, by Thomas Davis, Thomas Davis: Selections from his prose and poetry - London [1910), 306-310. [3] Of the fall of the Geraldines of Desmond, Father Dominic O'Daly writes: "God, who knows my heart, now sees that I cannot speak of the ruin which came upon them without tears and groans. For, let me ask, who is there--a true Irishman--who can listen to the story of their destruction, or mention it, without bitter grief? Ever were the Geraldines loved in Ireland, and venerated for their devotion to the faith; but particularly by those who value their religion and country. And how could I, who am an Irishman--and the son of that Irishman, who, leaving all that he held dear, even from his boyhood, sat by the hearth of these Desmonds, and when he grew up was made a depository of their confidence, held command under them in their last wars, and saw the slain Geraldines with his own eyes--how,I say, can I, the son of such a father, commemorate them without sight and groan, unless I be lost to all honourable sensibility." O'Daly, Dominic, O.P., Initium, Incremento et Exitus Familiae Geraldinorum ac Persecutionis Haereticorum Descriptio, first published Lisbon, 1655, trans. C.P. Meeham Dublin: James Duffy, 1878. Back to Main Page ©2003 William Desmond http://members.aol.com/desmondearls/earlintro.htm The Complete Peerage Vol. VII pg 200.