The Fitzgeralds of Ireland: origins and branches
Niall C.E.J. O’Brien
The Fitzgeralds of Wales and
Ireland generally take their descent from the noble family of the Gherardini of
Florence.[1] In
the eleventh century, like many other people across Europe who were on the
move, some members of the Gherardini left Florence for France from where they
crossed over to England in 1066 and soon after. The earliest member of record
in England was Walter FitzOther, constable of Windsor Castle in the closing
years of the reign of William I (William the Conqueror). Walter FitzOther died
after 1100 leaving three sons; William of Eton, Robert of Little Easton and
Gerald of Windsor.[2]
In 1093 Rhys ap Tewdwr, King of
South Wales, was killed in battle. His body was not long cold before the
Normans disregarded past treaties and invaded South Wales. Pembroke Castle soon
became the caput of the new land of Pembrokeshire.[3] So
many West Country people and people from Flanders settled in Pembrokeshire that
the land became known as Little England beyond Wales. Among the new settlers
was Gerald of Winsor who became constable of Pembroke Castle. Gerald found it
difficult to live in Pembrokeshire under the near constant threat of attack
from the Welsh. Thus he married Princess Nesta, daughter and heir of Rhys ap
Tewdrw. Nesta was a formable lady who, in an effort to preserve her
inheritance, had an affair with about every Norman knight of any worth up to,
and including, the King of England, Henry I.
Great keep of Pembroke Castle
Gerald of Windsor had three sons
by Nesta; William Fitzgerald, ancestor of the Carews of Devon and the
Fitzgeralds of Knocktopher; Maurice Fitzgerald, ancestor of the Earls of
Kildare and Desmond and of many people who bear the name of Fitzgerald in
Ireland today; and David Fitzgerald, Bishop of St. David’s and ancestor the
Fitzgeralds of Overk in Kilkenny who took the surname of Grant. Many of the
people called Grant in the southern half of Ireland once held the surname of
Fitzgerald.[4]
All the sons and grandsons of
Gerald of Windsor were involved in the Norman conquest of Ireland. Among the
sons of Maurice Fitzgerald were William Fitzgerald who acquired lands in
Kildare around Naas and his descendants became Barons of Naas. The second son was
Gerald Fitzgerald who got lands in North Kildare (Maynooth), Offaly, Limerick
(Adare) and Youghal Co. Cork. Gerald Fitzgerald became Baron Offaly and his
descendants became Earls of Kildare. In 1766 a descendant of the 1st
Baron Offaly, James Fitzgerald, became 1st Duke of Leinster. Maurice
Fitzgerald is the present (2014) and 9th Duke of Leinster. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_of_Leinster]
The Youghal property was given to
Gerald Fitzgerald by Prince John in the 1180s and included the present town
along both sides of the Blackwater Estuary in what was called the Manor of
Inchiquin. The Barons of Offaly also had title to the land south of the River
Bride and west of the River Blackwater in what is now called Knockanore.
Around 1270 Youghal and
Knockanore passed to a female heir and then to her husband’s family of de
Clare. The last male heir of the de Clare family died in 1321 and the lands
were divided among four of the leading families of England. By 1400 the Earl of
Ormond had acquired the four parts of Youghal and Knockanore.
The fourth son of Maurice
Fitzgerald was Thomas Fitzgerald who acquired a few small estates in present
day County Limerick centred on a place called Shanid. It was from this small
beginning around Shanid that the Fitzgerald family expanded over the following
four centuries to acquire an estate over half a million acres across the
Counties of Kerry, Limerick, Cork, Tipperary and Waterford.[5] In
1329 the family was elevated to the title of Earl of Desmond and the last direct
male heir to the Earldom, Gerald Fitzgerald, died in Germany in 1630.[6]
When Thomas Fitzmaurice Fitzgerald
died in 1213 he left a son, John Fitzthomas Fitzgerald, under aged.[7] As
was the practice in medieval times if a male heir was under the age of
twenty-one he became a ward of the crown. As such the crown had control of the
estates and took the income and profits. The crown also had the right to choose
a wife for the young man. Sometimes the crown sold the wardship of an heir to
some wealthy landowner in return for up-front money. This is what happened with
John Fitzthomas Fitzgerald. In about 1220 he was sold to Thomas FitzAnthony,
seneschal of Leinster and Lord of the Decies in County Waterford. Thomas
FitzAnthony married John Fitzgerald to his daughter Margery or sometimes
written as Margaret.
Thomas FitzAnthony was granted
Decies in July 1215 and his descendants by Margery still hold Dromana Castle,
one of the chief castles of the Decies. In July 2015 the family of Dromana (Villiers
Stuart/Grubb) along with the community of Villierstown celebrate the 800th
anniversary of the family’s long connection the Decies (West Waterford). [https://www.facebook.com/dromana800?fref=ts]
Crest of the Dromana 800 anniversary
Thomas FitzAnthony left five
daughters and thus his estate was divided into five equal parts. The five
daughters got married and four left children. In 1234 three of the husbands
backed Richard Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, son of the most famous knight in
Europe, William Marshal, in his war against King Henry III. John Fitzthomas
Fitzgerald back the king and got the most land of Decies. This acquisition
expanded the Fitzgerald property by three to four times. For more on Thomas
FitzAnthony see = [http://celtic2realms-medievalnews.blogspot.ie/2013/09/thomas-fitz-anthony-thirteenth-century.html]
In 1261 John Fitzthomas
Fitzgerald and his son, Maurice Fitzgerald were both killed at the battle of
Callann near Kenmare in South Kerry. The Fitzgerald family on Munster was
virtually wiped out except for a one year old baby. In the panic at Tralee
Castle after the battle the baby was left alone. A monkey in the castle then
took the baby and climbed to the highest tower and stayed there until calm was
restored. The baby grew up to restored the greatness of the Fitzgerald family
and carried the nickname of “The Ape”.[8]
John Fitzmaurice Fitzgerald “The
Ape” was succeeded by his second son, Maurice Fitzjohn Fitzgerald. This Maurice
Fitzgerald expanded the family’s lands by purchase and conquest. The various
rebellions of Maurice Fitzgerald divide historians to this day. Their problem
is to judge if the rebellions were truly against the kings of Edward II and
Edward III or if Maurice was simply filling a void left by a receding
government. In 1329 Maurice Fitzgerald became Earl of Desmond and served for a
time as justiciar of Ireland or chief government official in the country. In
all four of the Earls of Desmond served as chief governor of Ireland. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_of_Desmond]
Between 1370 and 1460 various
Earls of Desmond began to acquire estates along the present county boundary
between Cork and Waterford. These lands included places like Aghern, Conna,
Ballynoe, Mogeely, Lisfinny, Tallow, Strancally, Shean, and Mocollop. Shortly
after 1420 the Earls of Desmond acquired all of Youghal and Knockanore from the
Earl of Ormond. By this time the estates of the Earl of Desmond were enormous
and stretched from near Waterford city to beyond Tralee.
In about 1430 the 7th Earl
of Desmond gave the land of Decies to his younger son, Gerald More Fitzgerald,
so as to better manage his vast estates. The land of Decies included much of
the land in County Waterford east of the River Blackwater as far east as
Stradbally and including the town of Dungarvan. The parish of Templemichael on
the west bank of the River Blackwater was also included in the Decies.
Gerald More Fitzgerald was styled
1st Lord of the Decies and became ancestor of the Fitzgeralds of
Dromana. His granddaughter was the celebrated Katherine Fitzgerald, the old
Countess of Desmond, who lived to be 104 or 140 years old and only died because
she fell from a cherry tree.[9] The
male line of the Dromana Fitzgeralds died out in 1664 with John Fitzgerald and
their large estates in West Waterford descended to his daughter Katherine
Fitzgerald. In 1670 Katherine Fitzgerald married Captain Edward Villiers and
the Villiers Stuart family who own Dromana in 2015 descend from this married.[10]
This part of Dromana House incorporates the medieval castle
Other branches of the Fitzgerald
family include those descended from the three younger brothers of John
Fitzthomas Fitzgerald (he who married Margaret FitzAnthony). These brothers
were Maurice (ancestor of the Knights of Kerry), John (ancestor of the Knight
of Glin), and Gilbert (ancestor of the White Knight). From the latter person
descends many people now known as Fitzgibbon. The last White Knight died in
1611. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Knight_%28Fitzgibbon_family%29]
The title of Knight of Glin, also
called the “Black Knight”, has been in dormancy or extinct since September 2011
with the death of Desmond John Villiers Fitzgerald, 29th Knight of
Glin. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knight_of_Glin]
The Knight of Kerry, or the “Green Knight”, is very much alive and Sir Adrian
Fitzgerald is the present (2014) and 24th Knight. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knight_of_Kerry]
Not every Fitzgerald in Ireland
can trace their descent from Gerald of Windsor. For example some Fitzgeralds are
descended from an ordinary person called Gerald who in medieval times gave his
Christian name to become the surname of their family. Until about the Fourteen
century most ordinary had no established surname like today. Instead people
were known by where they came from like Andrew of Kilkenny; or by their
occupation such as John le Carpenter; or from the name of their father like
John son of Gerald. In contrast the Barron family of Kilkenny and Waterford
were originally called Fitzgerald but changed their surname to Barron in the
Sixteenth century. Elsewhere many people in Devon and Cornwall with the surname
of Carew were once Fitzgeralds descended from Gerald of Windsor. They took the
name Carew from Carew castle in Pembrokeshire which was once the home of
Princess Nesta, the ancestral mother of nearly all Fitzgeralds.
==================
End of post
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[1]
Richard Roche, The Norman invasion of
Ireland (Anvil Books, Dublin, 1995), p. 76
[2]
Frank Barlow, William Rufus (Methuen,
London, 1990), pp. 39, 470
[3]
Frank Barlow, William Rufus (Methuen,
London, 1990), p. 322
[4]
A.B. Scott & F.X. Martin (eds.), Expugnatio
Hibernica by Giraldus Cambrensis (Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, 1978), p.
266, pedigree chart
[5]
Anthony M. McCormack, The Earldom of
Desmond 1463-1583: The Decline and Crisis of a Feudal Lordship (Four Courts
Press, Dublin, 2005), pp. 18, 19
[6]
Richard Berleth, The Twilight Lords
(Barnes & Noble, New York, 1994), p. 297
[7]
Gerald O’Carroll, The Earls of Desmond;
The Rise and Fall of a Munster Lordship (author, 2013), p. 2
[8]
Gerald O’Carroll, The Earls of Desmond,
p. 4
[9]
Burke’s Irish Family Records, 1976 (reprint 2007), p. 1065
[10]
Burke’s Irish Family Records, 1976 (reprint 2007), p. 1066
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