FITZGERALD

Fitz Gerald (Geraldins of Florence)

Sir Maurice Fitz Gerald[a] , First Baron of Offaly, b abt 1152 in Florence , d bef 15 Jan 1203/04 . He md Eve de Bermingham abt 1185, daughter of Robert de Bermingham. She was b abt 1165, d bef Dec 1226.
Child of Gerald Fitz Maurice and Eve de Bermingham was:

Sir Maurice Fitz Gerald [b], Justiciar of Ireland , Lord of Offaly, Knight, b 1190, d 1257, Youghal , Ireland . He md Juliane abt 1232. She was b abt 1212.
Children of Maurice Fitz Gerald and Juliane were:

    Sir Maurice Fitz Maurice Fitz Gerald, Lord of Offaly, b abt 1234. See LINE A
    Thomas Fitz Maurice Fitz Gerald b abt 1236. See LINE B

LINE A
Sir Maurice Fitz Maurice Fitz Gerald [c], Justiciar of Ireland , Lord of Offaly, b abt 1239, Wexford , Ireland , d 1286, Ross , Ireland . He md  Maud de Prendergast abt 1260, daughter of Gerald de Prendergast and Daughter de Burgh; and [2] Emmeline Longespee.
Child of Maurice Fitz Gerald and Maud de Prendergast was:

Juliane Fitz Maurice b abt 1263, prob Dublin , Ireland , d aft 1309. She md Sir Thomas de Clare, Governor of London, Lord of Inchequin and Youghae, 1275, Essex, England, son of Sir Richard de Clare, Earl of Gloucester and Hertford, Lord Clare, Knight, and Maud de Lacy.

LINE B
Thomas Fitz Maurice Fitz Gerald [d] b abt 1236, Ireland , d 1271, Ireland . The identity of his wife is not known.
Child of Thomas Fitz Gerald was:

Sir John Fitz Thomas Fitz Gerald [e], Earl of Kildare, Lord of Offaly, b abt 1258, Ireland, d 12 Sep 1316, Laraghbryan, Ireland. He md Blanche de la Roche abt 1278, daughter of John de la Roche. She was b abt 1263, Ireland .
Child of John Fitz Gerald and Blanche de la Roche was:

Joan Fitz Gerald, b abt 1282, of Fermoy, Cork , Ireland , d bef 2 May 1320 . She md Sir Edmund Butler, Justiciar of Ireland , Knight, 1302, son of Theobald le Boteler and Joan Fitz John.

NOTES:
 
a. Probably the eldest son of his father's (presumed) second marriage, he was the first baron of Offaly. He was with his father at the siege of Dublin in 1171, and after his father's death, his elder brother William gave him half the cantred of Ophelan. By his marriage to Eve, presumably the daughter of Robert de Bermingham, he received the barony of Offaly. His widow married secondly, Geoffrey Fitz Robert, and after his death in 1211, she married, thirdly, Geoffrey de Marsh (or Marisco), sometime Justiciar of Ireland.

b. He was knighted in Jul 1217, and as Maurice FitzGerald, Lord of Lea, the younger, he was one of the formal witnesses to a covenant of dower made in the great church of Naas in Mary 1227. He was summoned in Oct 1229 to London to accompany the King's expedition to Poitou and Gascony , and was appointed Justiciar of Ireland in Sep 1232. He was several times summoned to England as Justiciar, to give counsel on the affairs of Ireland , but in Nov 1245, he was superseded in that office by the appointment of John FitzGeoffrey, a move which the King appears afterwards to have regretted. He is said to have married Juliane, but nothing more is known of her. He died at the monastery of Youghal, which he had founded.

c. In May 1262, he was among the chief magnates in Ireland summoned to inform the King and Prince Edward about the state of that country, and was summoned again in Jun 1265. It had been believed that his (only) wife was Emmeline Longespee, but a recent discovery by Mr. Douglas Richardson (to appear in one of his upcoming publications), indicates Maurice Fitz Maurice (Fitz Gerald) was first married to Maud de Prendergast, and she was the mother of Juliane Fitz Maurice. Go to SGM site for details concerning this discovery.

d. Youngest son of Maurice Fitz Gerald, the Justiciar, he had, from his brother, Maurice, a grant of lands in Sligo . He died at his brother's castle of Lough Mask in 1271.

e. He first appears in records ca 1288, when as John, son of Thomas, he was guardian of part of the Marches of the English Pale, and in 1291 he had protection while in England with the Archbishop of Dublin. He was also engaged in suits concerning his kinsmen's lands, which he appears to have bought from the coheirs. In 1293, he built Sligo Castle , and in the same year and later, was keeper of the castles of Roscommon and Randown. In 1294, he took the Earl of Ulster (Richard de Burgh) prisoner and was also involved in a dispute with another noble, William de Vesci. In 1295, he was summoned to Parliament by John Wogan the Justiciar, who also arranged a truce for two years between the Earl of Ulster and John and the other Geraldines, which became a peace in 1298. John then gave the Earl 3,000 marks and the Earl gave his daughter in marriage to John's son. From 1295 to 1302, he was summoned by the King for military service in Scotland and Flanders . In 1307, he and Edmund Boteler dispersed the robbers of Offaly who had burned Lea Castle . In 1309 he was called upon to cooperate with the Earl of Ulster and other magnates in assembling an Irish force by the following midsummer to serve in Scotland , and in 1311 he was summoned to assist the King's commissioners in quieting discontents in Ireland . When Edward Bruce, brother of King Robert, came to Ireland and was crowned King of Ireland, John Fitz Thomas and others, whose combined forces would have been sufficient to overcome Bruce, intead fell out among themselves and did nothing, but in Feb 1315/16, he joined with the other magnates of Ireland in an obligation to maintain the King's authority against his enemies, the Scots. On 14 May of that year, for his services to the late and present King, he had grants of the castle and town of Kildare , and being then in England , was created Earl of Kildare.

SOURCES:
CP VII[200, 218-221], Vol X[10-17]; AR: Line 178[2-7], 178A[5-8]; GL: English Origins of New England Families, Series 1, Volume 2, Origin of the Hastings, by G. Andrews Moriarty, p. 688, from an article originally appearing in NEHGR, republished by Genealogical Publishing Co.