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Gerald FitzMaurice | |
---|---|
1st Lord of Offaly | |
Tenure | c. 1193–1204 |
Born | c. 1150 |
Died | 15 January 1204 |
Nationality | Cambro-Norman |
Locality | Maynooth Castle, County Kildare, Ireland |
Noble family | FitzGerald/FitzMaurice dynasty |
Spouse(s) | Eve de Bermingham, Lady of Offaly |
Issue | Maurice FitzGerald, 2nd Lord of Offaly, Justiciar of Ireland |
Parents | Maurice FitzGerald, Lord of Llanstephan Alice de Montgomery |
Gerald FitzMaurice, jure uxoris 1st Lord of Offaly (c. 1150 – 15 January 1204) was a Cambro-Norman nobleman who took part with his father, Maurice FitzGerald, Lord of Llanstephan, in the Norman Invasion of Ireland (1169–71). Together with his five brothers and one sister Nesta they founded the notable FitzGerald/FitzMaurice dynasty which was to play an important role in Irish history.
By right of his wife, the heiress Eve de Bermingham, Gerald was granted the barony of Offaly, thus becoming the first Lord. He is the ancestor of the Kildare and Leinster branch of the dynasty.
Confusingly, his father Maurice was granted the lordship of Offelan in north County Kildare in 1175 by Strongbow. [1]
Gerald FitzMaurice was born in Wales in about 1150, the second-eldest son of Maurice FitzGerald, Lord of Llanstephan by his wife, Alice (daughter of Arnulf de Montgomery). [2] Gerald had one sister, Nesta, who was named after their celebrated grandmother, Princess Nest ferch Rhys, and five brothers, including the eldest, William FitzMaurice, 1st Baron of Naas.
Gerald's father was the leader of the first landing of Normans who arrived in Ireland in 1169 to assist the exiled Irish king of Leinster Dermot MacMurrough regain his kingdom. [3] Accompanying his father from Wales to Ireland, he and his brother Alexander showed great valour in the battle against Roderick O'Conor outside the walls of Dublin in 1171. Upon the death of their father, on 1 September 1176, Gerald's elder brother William granted him half the cantred of Ophelan with centres at Maynooth and Rathmore. He was confirmed in them by Prince John in 1185.
William FitzAldelm deprived Gerald and his brothers of their stronghold of Wicklow, though, after a time, was compelled to give them Ferns in exchange. Gerald had already received, from Strongbow, Naas and other districts in what became County Kildare, and had erected Maynooth Castle.
In 1197, he took part in the conquest of Limerick acquiring Croom, County Limerick. [4]
In 1199, though receiving King John's letters of protection, he was ordered to "do right" to Maurice Fitzphilip for the lands of 'Gessil and Lega', that he had taken from Maurice. Between 1185 and 1204, Fitzgerald, had established a settlement at Geashill. Originally of motte-and-bailey design, it was a timber castle on an earthen mound, nearby were located the church and tenant dwellings. On his death Gerald was still in possession of those estates. In the 15th century the wooded fortress at Geashill was replaced by a stone tower house. Today, only the west wall of the castle remains.
He is often described as 'Baron Offaly', the middle cantred of which had been among his father's possessions. He died around 15 January 1204.
Gerald is described by his cousin, Giraldus Cambrensis, as small in stature, but distinguished for prudence and honesty. He was the patrilineal ancestor of the earls of Kildare.
Sometime around 1193, he married as her first husband, Eve de Bermingham (died between June 1223 and December 1226), daughter of Sir Robert de Bermingham. In marriage, he received the barony of Offaly, becoming the first FitzGerald Lord of Offaly. Together Gerald and Eve had one son:
Following Gerald's death on 15 January 1204, Eve would go on to marry two more times. Her second husband was Geoffrey FitzRobert, and her third, whom she married sometime after 1211, was Geoffrey de Marisco, Justiciar of Ireland.
Duke of Leinster is a title in the Peerage of Ireland and the premier dukedom in that peerage. The subsidiary titles of the Duke of Leinster are: Marquess of Kildare (1761), Earl of Kildare (1316), Earl of Offaly (1761), Viscount Leinster, of Taplow in the County of Buckingham (1747), Baron of Offaly, Baron Offaly (1620) and Baron Kildare, of Kildare in the County of Kildare (1870). The viscounty of Leinster is in the Peerage of Great Britain, the barony of Kildare in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, and all other titles in the Peerage of Ireland. The courtesy title of the eldest son and heir of the Duke of Leinster is Marquess of Kildare. The Duke of Leinster is the head of the House of Kildare.
Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, also Lord of Leinster and Justiciar of Ireland, was an Anglo-Norman nobleman notable for his leading role in the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland. Like his father, Richard is commonly known by his nickname, Strongbow.
Nest ferch Rhys was the daughter of Rhys ap Tewdwr, last King of Deheubarth in Wales, by his wife, Gwladys ferch Rhiwallon ap Cynfyn of Powys. Her family is of the House of Dinefwr. Nest was the wife of Gerald de Windsor, Constable of Pembroke Castle and son of the Constable of Windsor Castle in Berkshire, by whom she was the ancestress of the FitzGerald dynasty.
The FitzGerald dynasty is a Hiberno-Norman noble and aristocratic dynasty, originally of Cambro-Norman and Anglo-Norman origin. They have been peers of Ireland since at least the 13th century, and are described in the Annals of the Four Masters as having become "more Irish than the Irish themselves" or Gaels, due to assimilation with the native Gaelic aristocratic and popular culture. The dynasty has also been referred to as the Geraldines and Ireland's largest landowners. They achieved power through colonisation and the conquest of large swathes of Irish territory by the sons and grandsons of Gerald de Windsor. Gerald de Windsor was the first Castellan of Pembroke Castle in Wales, and became the male progenitor of the FitzMaurice and FitzGerald Dynasty. His father, Baron Walter FitzOther, was the first Constable and Governor of Windsor Castle for William the Conqueror, and was the Lord of 38 manors in England, making the FitzGeralds one of the "service families" on whom the King relied for his survival. Some of its members became the Black Knights, Green Knights and White Knights.
Robert FitzStephen was a Cambro-Norman soldier, one of the leaders of the Norman invasion of Ireland, for which he was granted extensive lands in Ireland. He was a son of the famous Nest, daughter of Rhys ap Tewdwr, the last king of Deheubarth. His father was Nest's second husband, Stephen, Constable of Cardigan. Following the death of her first husband, Gerald de Windsor, her sons had married her to Stephen, her husband's constable for Cardigan. By Stephen, she had another son, possibly two; the eldest was Robert, and the younger may have been Hywel.
There have been two creations of the title Baron Offaly, both in the Peerage of Ireland.
Maynooth Castle is a ruined castle in Maynooth, County Kildare, Ireland which stands at the entrance to the South Campus of Maynooth University. Constructed in the early 13th century, it became the primary residence of the Kildare Fitzmaurice and Fitzgerald family.
County Kildare in the province of Leinster, Ireland, was first defined as a diocese in 1111, shired in 1297 and assumed its present borders in 1836. Its location in the Liffey basin on the main routes from Dublin to the south and west meant it was a valuable possession and important theatre of events throughout Irish history.
Maurice FitzGerald, Lord of Maynooth, Naas, and Llanstephan (born: almost certainly not at Windsor Castle, more likely Carew in Wales c.1105 – September c.1176 Wexford, Ireland. He was a medieval Anglo-Norman baron and a major figure in the Norman Invasion of Ireland.
Maurice Fitzgerald may refer to:
John FitzThomas was an Anglo-Norman in the Peerage of Ireland, as 4th Lord of Offaly from 1287 and subsequently as 1st Earl of Kildare from 1316.
Theobald Walter was the first Chief Butler of Ireland. He also held the office of Chief Butler of England and was the High Sheriff of Lancashire for 1194. Theobald was the first to use the surname Butler of the Butler family of Ireland. He was involved in the Irish campaigns of King Henry II of England and John of England. His eldest brother Hubert Walter became the Archbishop of Canterbury and justiciar and Lord Chancellor of England.
Joan Butler, Countess of Carrick was an Irish noblewoman, and the wife of Edmund Butler, Earl of Carrick, Justiciar of Ireland. She was the mother of James Butler, 1st Earl of Ormond.
Maud de Prendergast, Lady of Offaly, was a Norman-Irish noblewoman, the first wife of Maurice FitzGerald, 3rd Lord of Offaly, Justiciar of Ireland, and the mother of his two daughters, Juliana FitzGerald and Amabel. She married three times; Maurice FitzGerald, 3rd Lord of Offaly was her third husband.
Maurice FitzMaurice FitzGerald was an Irish magnate, soldier, and Justiciar of Ireland from 1272 to 1273. His family would come to epitomise the ideal of cultural synthesis in Ireland, becoming "more Irish than the Irish themselves", fusing Gaelic and Norman customs in Irish identity. "But others say he never enjoyed that lordship himself, but that it passed to the son and grandson of his eldest brother Gerald."
Maurice Fitzmaurice FitzGerald I, 2nd Lord of Offaly was an Anglo-Norman peer, soldier, and Justiciar of Ireland from 1232 to 1245. He mustered many armies against the Irish, and due to his harsh methods as Justiciar, he received criticism from King Henry III of England. He was succeeded as Lord of Offaly by his son, Maurice FitzGerald, 3rd Lord of Offaly.
Eve de Bermingham, suo jure Lady of Offaly, was a Norman-Irish heiress, being the only child of Robert de Bermingham who was enfeoffed by Strongbow with part of the kingdom of Ui Failghe. This fief became the barony of Offaly which she as the suo jure heiress, passed on to her first husband, Gerald FitzMaurice, who by right of his wife was created the 1st Lord of Offaly. She had a total of three husbands.
Edmund Butler, 6th Chief Butler of Ireland and nominally Earl of Carrick, was an Irish magnate who served as Justiciar of Ireland during the difficult times of the Scottish invasion from 1315 to 1318 and the great famine of 1316 to 1317.
Lettice FitzGerald, 1st Baroness Offaly was an Irish noblewoman and a member of the FitzGerald dynasty. Although she became heiress-general to the Earls of Kildare on the death of her father, the title instead went to the next FitzGerald male heir when her grandfather, the 11th Earl of Kildare, died in 1585. In 1620, she was created suo jure Baroness Offaly by King James I of England.
Meiler FitzHenry was a Cambro-Norman nobleman and Lord Chief Justice of Ireland during the Lordship of Ireland.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : "Fitzgerald, Gerald (d.1204)". Dictionary of National Biography . London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.