FitzGerald () 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" 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 the conquest and colonisation of large swathes of Irish territory by the sons and grandsons of Gerald de Windsor (also called Gerald FitzWalter, c. 1075 – 1135), the first Castellan of Pembroke Castle in Wales and progenitor of the FitzMaurice and FitzGerald dynasties. The family name means "sons of Gerald", with "fitz" from Anglo-Norman fils "son".
Gerald de Windsor's 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", the King's strongest military supporters. Some members of the family became the Black Knights, Green Knights and White Knights.Graves, James, and Samuel Heyman, editors. "Unpublished Geraldine Documents, The Whyte Knight." The Journal of the Royal Historical and Archaeological Association of Ireland, vol. IV, pg 37. Dublin University Press, Ireland. 1885, p. 3-4-27-37
The main branches of the family are: The FitzMaurices and FitzGeralds of Kildare (Earls of Kildare from 1316, later Marquesses of Kildare and from 1766 Dukes of Leinster and Premier Peers of Ireland). The current head is Maurice FitzGerald, 9th Duke of Leinster. The Fitzmaurices and FitzGeralds of Desmond (Barons Desmond, later Earls of Desmond).
Overview
The progenitor of the Irish FitzGerald dynasty was a Cambro-Norman Marcher Lord named Maurice FitzGerald, Lord of Lanstephan, son of Gerald de Windsor and Princess Nest ferch Rhys, of the Welsh royal House of Dinefwr. Maurice married a daughter of the Norman magnate Arnulf de Montgomery: the Montgomeries, lords of 150 manors and 30 castles, were the most powerful magnates in both England and Normandy, and were of the same family as William the Conqueror.Sir Burke, Bernard, C.B. LL.D. A Genealogical History of the Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages of the British Empire, new edition, (1866), p. 204, [author states, "Maurice FitzGerald by his wife Alice, dau. of Arnolph de Montgomery (by his wife Lafracoth, dau. of Murrough O'Brien, King of Munster) he had issue,"]. : page 155 His wife's maternal grandfather was the High King of Ireland, Muirchertach Ua Briain (see Arnulf de Montgomery) which may have influenced the important role Maurice played the 1169 Norman invasion of Ireland.
The FitzGeralds claim kinship with the Tudors who descended from the same Welsh royal line as Princess Nest's father, Rhys ap Tewdwr, King of Deheubarth. Consequently, the FitzMaurices and FitzGeralds are cousins to the Tudors (Tewdwrs in Welsh) through Princess Nest and her Welsh family.
In his poetry, Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, a cousin of Anne Boleyn, also referred to Countess Elizabeth FitzGerald, (1527–89) as "Fair Geraldine", alluding to her family's Italian ancestry through the Gherardinis of Florence. The FitzGerald dynasty has played a major role in Irish history. Gearóid Mór, 8th Earl of Kildare and his son Gearóid Óg, 9th Earl of Kildare, were Lord Deputy of Ireland in the late-fifteenth and early-sixteenth centuries respectively. Both married to cousins of Henry Tudor, first monarch of the House of Tudor.
During the Italian War of 1521–1526, James FitzGerald, 10th Earl of Desmond, conspired with the Venetians and King Francis I of France, of Château de Chambord, against the Habsburgs, Tudors and Medicis.D.B Quinn, 'English Policy in Irish Affairs, 1520-34', 665 After the war, he sided once again against England, and allied himself with Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor during the War of the League of Cognac.9D.B Quinn, 'Henry VIII and Ireland, 1509-1534', 323-324 Another notable rebel was Commander James FitzMaurice FitzGerald, who led the Desmond Rebellions against the Tudors, and negotiated with Catherine de' Medici with the ambition of making her son, Henry III of France, the new King of Ireland. Gerald FitzGerald, 14th Earl of Desmond led the Second Desmond Rebellion with the help of the King of Spain, Philip of Habsburg, and Pope Gregory XIII, in an attempt to put on the throne Duke Giacomo Boncompagni.
Thomas FitzGerald, 10th Earl of Kildare (died 1537), known as "Silken Thomas," also led an unsuccessful insurrection in Ireland, while Lord Edward FitzGerald (1763–1798), the fifth son of the first duke of Leinster, was a leading figure in the 1798 Irish Rebellion against King George III of the House of Hanover. Thomas's half-brother, the 11th Earl, nicknamed the "Wizard Earl", went into exile in Italy, joined the Geraldine League, and became a member of the household of the Duke of Mantua, of the Gonzaga family, and Master of Horse to Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany.Joachim Eibach (Bern) (2012). Gerald Power, A European frontier elite: the nobility of the English Pale in Tudor Ireland, 1496-1566, The Formation of Europe Historische Formationen Europas Vol. 4 | Band 4, Wehrhahn Verlag, p. 24Moore, T. "The Romantic Wanderings of Gerald, 11th Earl of Kildare." The Irish Monthly, vol. 46, no. 542, 1918, pp. 433–48. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20505105. Accessed 13 Aug. 2023. p. 446
In Irish history, an example of the FitzGerald dynasty becoming "more Irish than the Irish themselves" is Gerald FitzGerald, 3rd Earl of Desmond (1335–1398), who was also known by the Irish Gaelic Gearóid Iarla (Earl Gerald).Webb, Alfred. A Compendium of Irish Biography. Dublin: 1878. Although made Lord Chief Justice of Ireland in 1367, Gerald wrote poetry in the Irish language, most famously the poem Mairg adeir olc ris na mnáibh ("Woe to Those who Speak Ill of Womankind"). Indeed, although an accomplished poet in Norman French, Gerald was instrumental in the move by the Fitzmaurices and Fitzgeralds of Desmond toward greater use of the Irish language.
Modern times
Many members of the Fitzmaurices also became notable over the centuries, such as William Petty Fitzmaurice, 1st Marquess of Lansdowne, the Prime Minister of Britain who negotiated with Benjamin Franklin and secured peace with America at the end of the American War of Independence, or Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 5th Marquess of Lansdowne, Viceroy of Canada and India,Henry Charles Keith Petty-Fitzmaurice, 5th marquess of Lansdowne, British diplomat, Encyclopedia Britannica who became a half-nephew of Emperor Napoleon III, a step-grandson of Queen Hortense Bonaparte, and a great-grandson of Talleyrand, connecting the family with the Houses of Beauharnais, Talleyrand, and Bonaparte. The Treaty of Paris (1783), that gave the independence to the United States was drafted from William's home at Lansdowne House, and Henry was made a member of the prominent Brooks's Club, alongside the 8th Duke of Devonshire of Chatsworth House, Prime Minister Lord Rosebery of Mentmore Towers, and Baron Lionel de Rothschild, grandson of Mayer Amschel, founder of the House of Rothschild.
The present-day seat of the Irish Parliament Dáil Éireann is housed in Leinster House, which was first built in 1745–48 by James FitzGerald, 1st Duke of Leinster as the ducal palace for the Dukes of Leinster. The White House in the United States, seat of the U.S. President, was based on Leinster House, and was designed by Irish architect James Hoban for George Washington, who also supervised the U.S. Capitol's construction for Thomas Jefferson.James Hoban: Designer and Builder of the White House, The White House Historical Association, Stewart McLaurin, 2021The Impact of Ireland's Architects, from the Pritzker Prize to the White House, Architect Features, Niall Patrick Walsh, Mars 17, 2022B. Philipp Bigler (2023). James Hoban, Irish architect, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Arts & Culture, Article HistoryLeinster House, The White House Historical Association, James Malton, 1792, British Library Board. The Dukes were related to the Royal houses of Bourbon, Medici, and Habsburg, among others, as the first Duke married the great-granddaughter of King Charles II of the Royal House of Stuart. Charles's mother, Queen Henrietta Maria de Bourbon, was the aunt of Louis XIV of Versailles, while his grandmother and great-grandmother were the Queens Marie de' Medici and Joanna of Habsburg. The current Duke is Maurice FitzGerald, 9th Duke of Leinster, who is also the 9th Marquess of Kildare, 28th Earl of Kildare, 9th Earl of Offaly, 9th Viscount Leinster of Taplow, 14th Baron Offaly, 6th Baron Kildare.
Cambro-Norman origins
The surname FitzGerald is a patronymic of the Norman form, fitz meaning "son". "Fitz Gerald" thus means in Old Norman and in Old French "son of Gerald". Gerald itself is a Germanic compound of ger, "spear", and waltan, "rule". Variant spellings include Fitz-Gerald and the modern Fitzgerald. The name can also appear as two separate words Fitz Gerald.
The earliest recorded use of the patronymic FitzGerald is that of Raoul fitz Gerald le Chambellan, member of the Tancarville family. Raoul was a Norman baron, Chamberlain of Normandy, educator of the young William, future Conqueror of England, and father of William de Tancarville, Earl of Tankerville and chief chamberlain of Normandy and England after the Norman conquest. The eponymous ancestor of the various FitzGerald branches, as well as of the de Barry and FitzMaurice families, was Gerald FitzWalter of Windsor. Gerald was a Norman adventurer who took part in the 1093 invasion of South Wales upon the death in battle of Rhys ap Tewdwr, last king of South Wales.
Gerald was the youngest son of another Norman adventurer, Walter fitz Otho, William the Conqueror's Constable for the strategic military fortress of Windsor Castle, as well as the King's Keeper of the Forests of Berkshire. Domesday Book records Walter fitz Otho as tenant-in-chief of lands formerly held by conquered Englishmen in Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hampshire, and Middlesex. Walter's positions and most of his lands were inherited by Gerald's older brothers, Robert, Maurice, and William, the oldest, ancestor of the earls of Plymouth, while Gerald inherited the estate of Moulsford, now in Oxfordshire, near to Wallingford, where his father owned a fortified house adjacent to those of other powerful Norman authorities.
Nest ferch Rhys ap Tewdwr was the daughter of the last king of South Wales by his wife, Gwladys ferch Rhiwallon ap Cynfyn of Powys. Their grandchildren, Maurice FitzGerald, Lord of Lanstephan, Raymond le Gros and Philip de Barry were leaders in the Norman invasion of Ireland. Nest's son by her second marriage, Robert FitzStephen, was another participant, as was William de Hay, husband of one of Gerald's and Nest's granddaughters. Nest's grandson (through her son by Henry I of England, son of William the Conqueror), named Meiler FitzHenry, was appointed Lord Justice of Ireland for his cousin, King Henry II of England, member of the House of Plantagenet.