Gerald Fitzgerald (1525 - 1585)

Born 25 Feb 1525 in Maynooth, County Kildare, Ireland

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 16 Nov 1585 at age 60 in London, England

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Biography

Born probably at Maynooth Castle, Ireland in 1525, Gerald was the son of Gerald FitzGerald, 9th Earl of Kildare, and Lady Elizabeth Grey. ^[1]

1534 His father had died imprisoned at the Tower of London in 1534 and in 1537 Gerald succeeded to the Earldom of Kildare at the age of 12, when his elder brother the 10th Earl of Kildare known as Silken Thomas, was executed at Tyburn together with five of his Kildare uncles ^[2]

Instrumental in Gerald's protection -- including writing a personal letter to King Henry VIII in 1545 -- was his eldest paternal aunt Eleanor FitzGerald,^[3] widow of the 12th Prince of Carbery (Donel MacCarthy Reagh) and mother of the 13th Prince (Cormac).

Eleanor arranged for Gerald to go to France, where he was briefly under the protection of King Francis I, and later of Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire. Gerald spent most of the 1540s in Rome, at the invitation of exiled English cardinal Reginald Pole, and became fluent in Italian.

Returning to Ireland, he was invested as a Knight ca.1552. He was created 1st Earl of Kildare and 1st Baron of Offaly on 13 May 1554 and married Mabel Browne, daughter of Sir Anthony Browne and Alice Gage a gentlewoman of the queen's privy chamber on 28 May of that year in the Royal Chapel.

He was Justice of the Peace for County Kildare and County Dublin in 1556 and was invested as a Privy Counsellor in March 1558. Succeeding finally to the title of 11th Earl of Kildare on 23 February 1569, restored by Act of Parliament.

He settled the Manors of Maynooth and Graney on his Countess in 1566; and upon each of his younger children £1,000. He had also entailed his estates upon his sons and their heirs male, with remainder to his brother and to his cousins, Thomas and Gerald, sons of his uncle Oliver, Sir Maurice, son of Thomas, and William, son of Sir James Fitz Gerald, and their heirs male. ^[4]

1585 on 16th. November he died, in London, in a condition of semi-captivity having made his will on the 6th.: ^[4]

My sowle to Almighty God, my bowels to be buried here in Englande and my bodie to be conveide to Ireland and there buried in St Bryde's Church in KIldare.

My brother Edwarde Fitz Gerald

My seconde sonne William Fitz Gerald

My servant Gerald Delahyde

My daughter the lady Delvin

My seconde daughter Elizabeth

My deceased sonne, the Lord Garrat's daughter named Latice Fitz Gerald

legacies to to 4 natural sons and 3 natural daughters.

That his Countess should takre care of all his old servants

Executers his son Henry and son-in law Lord Delvin

His body was brought to Ireland and interred at Kildare Feb 1586 ^[4]

He was succeeded by his 2nd. son Henry as 12th. Earl o f Kildare.

Issue by Mabel Browne; 3 sons & 2 daughters

1. Mary Fitzgerald (b.c. 1556 -1610), m. 1584 Christopher Nugent, 6th Baron Delvin, - issue. ^[5] & ^[6]
2. Gerald FitzGerald, Lord Offaly, Lord Garratt (28 December 1559 – June 1580), married in October 1578, Catherine Knollys, a granddaughter of Mary Boleyn. They had a daughter Lettice Digby, 1st Baroness Offaly who married Sir Robert Digby. ^[7] (These were the direct ancestors of the celebrated 19th-century adventuress Jane Digby).
3. Henry 'Na Tuagh' Fitzgerald 12th Earl of Kildare, (1562–1597), married Lady Frances Howard by whom he had female issue. ^[8]
4. Elizabeth Fitzgerald (b c 1563 - 1617) m. as his 2nd. wife Donough MacConnor O'Brien, the 4th Earl of Thomond, - issue. ^[4]
5. William Fitzgerald 13th Earl of Kildare (d. April 1599); Lost at Sea, died unmarried.

Illegitimate

1. Gerald Fitzgerald d 1600 of Morett & Timogue by a daughter of Fergus O'Kelly of Timogue m. Margaret Bowen - Issue ^[9]
2. Edward FitzGerald ^[9]

Property

After his death there was an Inquisition as to his property and it was found that he possessed Manors and advowsons of the rectories & vicarages of : - Maynooth, Kildare, Rathangan, Athy, Woodstock, Kilkea, Castledermot and Graney in Co. Kildare Portlester, Ballyboggan, Newtown de Moyagher, Moylagh and Kildalkie in Meath Geashill in Kings Ardglass + Strangford in Down Crom and Adare in Limerick and many other lands. ^[4]

• Some key events of Gerald's childhood and young adulthood: ^[10]

• In February 1536, after the failure of the Kildare Rebellion (1534-35) launched by his elder brother Silken Thomas, the boy Gerald was studying at Donore Castle, County Meath. As Gerald's uncles were all being arrested for treason, Gerald's tutor Thomas Leverous, Catholic bishop of Kildare, fled with Gerald and they spent several months under the protection of Connor O'Brien, Prince of Thomond, who had been a strong ally of Gerald's recently deceased father (1534), the 9th Earl of Kildare.

• Later in 1536, O'Brien then sent the 2 of them (Gerald and his tutor) to County Cork, where they were protected by Gerald's paternal aunt Eleanor, widow of the Prince of Carbery, and they lived in the MacCarthy Reagh family seat at Kilbrittain Castle.

• After Silken Thomas' execution in London in February 1537, young Gerald became 11th Earl of Kildare (in name), and the Irish government put increasing pressure on Munster to surrender him to the authorities. Thus in 1538 Eleanor took Gerald and his tutor Leverous north to Tyrconnell (in present-day County Donegal) and for strategic reasons she married Manus O'Donnell (June 1538), one of the founders of the Geraldine League.

• By the end of 1539 the Geraldine League had nearly collapsed due to a series of military reverses, so Leverous and Gerald fled by ship from Tyrconnell to France. In March 1540 they landed at Morlaix, Brittany, and then continued to Paris, where from May 1540 to February 1541 they resided at the royal court before proceeding to Brussels. There the emperor Charles V granted Gerald an annual allowance and allowed him and his entourage to reside in the bishop's palace at Liège. Fear of Gerald's kidnapping by English agents led them to leave Liège after 6 months. Beyond offering Gerald basic protection, it was obvious that neither the French nor Charles V were prepared to offer military assistance to the Fitzgerald cause.

• Since coming to France, Leverous had been in contact with the exiled English cardinal Reginald Pole, who encouraged him to bring Gerald to Rome. After their arrival (late 1541) Gerald was granted papal protection and Leverous became a member of Pole's household. Although Leverous remained close to Gerald, he no longer acted as tutor and guardian. With Pole's support, he was permitted to join the English College of St Thomas in Rome.

• Following the death of Henry VIII (1547), his son Edward VI decided to pardon Gerald in order to prevent the young man from becoming the focus of intrigue. In June 1549 Leverous accompanied Gerald to London before continuing alone to Ireland, receiving a royal pardon for his past opposition to the crown.

Other highlights of Gerald's life:

• He held the office of Master of Horse to Cosimo de Medici, Duke of Florence.^[11]

• His restoration as Earl of Kildare aroused the hostility of many, including successive Lord Deputies, and he was frequently accused of treason, and was imprisoned in Dublin Castle and later in the Tower of London.

• He owed his survival mainly to the personal regard of Queen Elizabeth, who twice dismissed the charges of treason against him. He conformed to the Protestant religion at the start of Elizabeth's reign.

Personality: "He is stated by contemporaries to have been an expert horseman, valiant, small of stature, slender of person, very courteous, but hard and angry at times, a great gatherer of money, and addicted to gambling."^[12]

Sources

1. ↑ Dictionary of Irish Biiography
2. ↑ Compendum of Irish Biography - Alfred Webb 1878
3. ↑ Eleanor's profile in The Earls of Kildare, and Their Ancestors: From 1057 to 1773, pp.71-74
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4} Fitzgerald, Charles William; Duke of Leinster; The Earls of Kildare, and Their Ancestors From 1057 to 1773 pub 1858 pg 223 - 226
5. ↑ [https://archive.org/details/historicalsketch00lede/page/n12/mode/1up Historical sketch of the Nugent family Pub.1853 pg 12]
6. ↑ Cracroft's Peerage; Westmeath, Earl of
7. ↑ Dictionary of Irish Biography - Lettice Fitzgerald
8. ↑ A compendium of Irish biography: comprising sketches of distinguished Irishmen, and of eminent persons connected with Ireland by office or by their writings. Alfred Webb pub 1878
9. ↑ ^{9.0 9.1} Fitzgerald, Lord Walter; Pedigree of Fitzgerald and History of Morett in Journal of the County Kildare Archaeological Society. Pub: 1891 Vol 4 pp 288 - 291
10. ↑ Dictionary of Irish Biography page for Thomas Leverous, Catholic Bishop of Kildare and tutor of the young Gerald, future 11th Earl of Kildare.
11. ↑ Wikipedia - Cosimo de Medici
12. ↑ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

See Also -

Gerald's profile in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

A detailed biography is included in James Wills' Lives of Illustrious and Distinguished Irishmen, from the earliest times to the present period (Dublin: Macgregor, Polson 1840-47), pp.480-5

Webb, Alfred "A compendium of Irish biography: comprising sketches of distinguished Irishmen, and of eminent persons connected with Ireland by office or by their writings" pub 1878 p 188 and Also

The Peerage - Gerald FitzGerald

Wikipedia - Gerald Fitzgerald, 11th Earl of Kildare

History of Ireland - Collaborator and Survivor? Gerald the eleventh Earl of Kildare and Tudor Rule in Ireland