FITZGERALD, the name of an historic Irish house, which descends from Walter, son of Other, who at the time of the Domesday Survey (1086) was castellan of Windsor and a tenant in-chief in five counties. From his eldest son William, known as "de Windsor," descended the Windsors of Stanwell, of whom Andrew Windsor was created Lord Windsor of Stanwell (a Domesday possession of the house) by Henry VIII., which barony is now vested in the earl of Plymouth, his descendant in the female line. Of Walter's younger sons, Robert was given by Henry I. the barony of Little Easton, Essex; Maurice ob tained the stewardship (dapiferatus) of the great Suffolk abbey of Bury St. Edmunds; Reinald the stewardship to Henry I.'s queen, Adeliza; and Gerald (also a dapifer) became the ancestor of the Fitz Geralds. As constable and captain of the castle that Arnulf de Montgomery raised at Pembroke, Gerald strengthened his position in Wales by marrying Nesta, sister of Griffith, prince of South Wales, who bore to him famous children, "by whom the southern coast of Wales was saved for the English and the bulwarks of Ireland stormed." Of these sons William, the eldest, was succeeded by his son Odo, who was known as "de Carew," from the fortress of that name at the neck of the Pembroke peninsula, the eldest son Gerald having been slain by the Welsh. The descendants of Odo held Carew and the manor of Moulsford, Berks, and some of them acquired lands in Ireland. But the wild claims of Sir Peter Carew, under Queen Elizabeth, to vast Irish estates, including half of "the kingdom of Cork," were based on a fictitious pedigree. Odo de Carew's brothers, Reimund "Fitz William" (known as "Le Gros") and Griffin "Fitz William," took an active part in the conquest of Ireland.
Returning to Gerald and Nesta, their son David "Fitz Gerald" became bishop of St. David's (1147-1176), and their daughter Angharat mother of Gerald de Barri (Giraldus Cambrensis, q:v.). A third son, Maurice, obtained from his brother the stewardship (dapiferatus) of St. David's, c. I 1 7 4, and having landed in Ireland in 1169, on the invitation of King Dermod, founded the fortunes of his house there, receiving lands at Wexford, where he died and was buried in 1176. His eventual territory, however, was the great barony of the Naas in Ophaley (now in Kildare), which Strongbow granted him with Wicklow Castle ; but his sons were forced to give up the latter. His eldest son William succeeded him as baron of the Naas and steward of St. David's, but William's granddaughter carried the Naas to the Butlers and so to the Loundreses. Gerald, a younger son of Maurice, who obtained lands in Ophaley, was father of Maurice "Fitz Gerald," who was justiciar of Ireland from 1232 to 1245. In 1234 he fought and defeated his overlord, the earl marshal, Richard, earl of Pem broke, and he also fought for his king against the Irish, the Welsh and in Gascony, dying in 1257. He held Maynooth Castle, the seat of his descendants.
In his anger at his rival's successes the 9th earl had been led, it was suspected, into treason, and while he was a prisoner in England his son Lord Thomas Fitzgerald (q.v.), "Silken Thomas," broke out into open revolt (1534), and declared war on the Gov ernment; his followers slew the archbishop of Dublin and laid siege to Dublin Castle. He and his five uncles were hanged as traitors in Feb. 1537, and acts of attainder completed the ruin of the family.
But the earl's half-brother, Gerald (whose sister Elizabeth was the earl of Surrey's "fair Geraldine") , a mere boy, had been carried off, and, after many adventures at home and abroad, returned to England after Henry VIII.'s death, and to propitiate the Irish was restored to his estates by Edward VI. (1552). Having served Mary in Wyat's rebellion, he was created by her earl of Kildare and Lord Offaley, on May 13, 1554, but the old earldom (though the contrary is alleged) remained under attainder. Although he conformed to the Protestant religion un der Elizabeth and served against the Munster rebels and their Spanish allies, he was imprisoned in the Tower on suspicion of treason in 1583. But the acts attainting his family had been repealed in 1569, and the old earldom was thus regained. In 1585 he was succeeded by his son Henry ("of the Battleaxes"), who was mortally wounded when fighting the Tyrone rebels in 1597. On the death of his brother in 1599 the earldom passed to their cousin Gerald, whose claim to the estates was opposed by Lettice, Lady Digby, the heir-general. She obtained the ancestral castle of Geashill with its territory and was recognized in 162o as Lady Offaley for life. George, the 16th earl (162o-166o), had his castle of Maynooth pillaged by the Roman Catholics in 1642, and after its subsequent occupation by them in 1646 it was finally abandoned by the family.
The history of the earls of Kildare after the Restoration was uneventful save for the re-acquisition in 1739 of Carton, which thenceforth became the seat of the family, until James, the loth earl (1722-1773), who obtained a viscounty of Great Britain in built Leinster House in Dublin, and formed a powerful party in the Irish parliament. In 1756 he was made lord deputy; in 176o he raised the Royal Irish Regiment of Artillery; and in 1766 he received the dukedom of Leinster, which remained the only Irish dukedom till that of Abercorn was created in 1868.
His wealth and connections secured him a commanding position. Of his younger children, one son was created Lord Lecale ; an other was the well known rebel, Lord Edward Fitzgerald ; another was the ancestor of Lord De Ros; and a daughter was created Baroness Rayleigh. William Robert, the 2nd duke was a cordial supporter of the Union, and received nearly £3o, 000 for the loss of his borough influence. In 1883 the family was still holding over 70,000 acres in Co. Kildare; but, after a tenure of nearly 75o years, arrangements were made to sell them to the tenants under the recent Land Purchase Acts. In Maurice Fitzgerald (b. 1887) succeeded his father Gerald, the 5th duke (1851-1893), as 6th duke of Leinster.
But the influence of the Fitzgeralds remained powerful even after the forfeiture of their estates after the execution of the I 5th earl. The disinherited Thomas "Roe" left a son, James "Fitz Thomas," who, succeeding him in 1595 and finding that the terri tory of the earls would never be restored, assumed the earldom and joined O'Neill's rebellion in 1598, at the head of 8,000 of his men. He was eventually seized (16o1) by his kinsman the White Knight, Edmund Fitz Gibbon, whose sister-in-law he had married, and sent to the Tower. The "sugan" (sham) earl lingered there obscurely as "James M`Thomas" till his death. In consequence of his rebellion and the devotion of the Irish to his race, James, son of Gerald, "the rebel earl," who had remained in the Tower since his father's death (1583), was restored as earl of Desmond and sent over to Munster in 1600, but he, known as "the queen's earl," could, as a Protestant, do nothing, and he died unmarried in 16o1. The "sugan" earl's brother John, who had joined in his rebellion, escaped into Spain, and left a son Gerald, who appears to have assumed the title and was known as the Conde de Desmond. He was killed in the service of the emperor Ferdinand in 1632.
From the three sons by a second wife of one of the earls of Desmond's ancestors, descended the hereditary White Knights, Knights of Glin and Knights of Kerry, these feudal dignities hav ing, it is said, been bestowed upon them by their father, as Lord of Decies and Desmond. Glin Castle, Co. Limerick, is still the seat of the (Fitzgerald) Knight of Glin. Valencia Island is now the seat of the Knights of Kerry, who received a baronetcy in 1880.