son, John, the fifth earl, according to the ordinary reckoning, was drowned in the river Suir, within a few months of his father's death (Four Masters, iv. 761). The next son, Maurice, died without male issue in 1410. The third son, James, the O'Brien's foster-son, usurped the earldom from his nephew Thomas, the sixth earl, son of John. James was the father of Thomas Fitzgerald, eighth earl of Desmond [q. v.] Two daughters of Gerald and Eleanor are also mentioned ('Pedigree of the Desmonds,' in Graves, Unpublished Geraldine Documents, pt. ii.)
[Chartularies, &c., of St. Mary's Abbey, Dublin ; Annals of Loch Cé, both in Rolls Series; Calendar of the Patent and Close Rolls of Ireland, Record Comm.; Annals of the Four Masters; Clyn's Annals and Grace's Annals (Irish Archæological Soc.) ; Lodge's Peerage of Ireland, vol. i. (Archdall) ; Graves's Unpublished Geraldine Documents, first printed in Journal of Kilkenny Archæological Society, and then separately ; Gilbert's Viceroys of Ireland ; and the other authorities referred to in the text.]
FITZGERALD, GERALD, eighth Earl of Kildare (d. 1513), was son of Thomas
Fitzgerald, seventh earl of Kildare [q. v.],
by his wife Joan, daughter of James, earl of
Desmond. Gerald became Earl of Kildare
on the death of his father in 1477, and was
elected by the council at Dublin to succeed
him as deputy-governor in Ireland. Edward IV, however, nominated Henry, lord
Grey, to that office. In connection with the
appointment serious complications arose. Kildare and Grey respectively asserted rights
as governors, and presided over rival parliaments of the English settlement in Ireland.
After the termination of the contest Kildare
was, in 1481, appointed as deputy in Ireland
for the viceroy, Richard, duke of York, and
during the closing years of Edward IV
advanced much in wealth and influence.
He married Alison, daughter of Sir Rowland Fitzeustace, baron of Portlester, and
formed alliances with the most important
Irish and Anglo-Irish families. Richard III,
on his accession, laboured to secure the interest of Kildare, and appointed him deputy-governor in Ireland for his son, Prince Edward. Kildare identified himself prominently
with the Yorkist movement in Ireland, which
led to the battle at Stoke. In 1488, through
the medium of Sir Richard Edgecombe, Kildare was taken into favour by Henry VII, and
received pardon under the great seal. As
lord deputy he acted energetically against
some of the hostile Irish, but was subsequently suspected of favouring the claims
of Perkin Warbeck. Kildare deferred compliance with a royal mandate for his appearance in England. His messengers, sent with
despatches to the king, were imprisoned at
London, for which no explanation was accorded to him. In a letter to the Earl of
Ormonde Kildare complained of this treatment, and mentioned that he understood that
he had been falsely accused of having favoured
Perkin Warbeck. He declared that he had
never aided or supported him, and that his
loyalty had been certified to the king by the
principal lords of Ireland. At the same time
the Earl of Desmond, and other chief personages in Ireland, by letter entreated the
king not to require Kildare to attend on him
in England, as they alleged that the English
interest in Ireland would be severely prejudiced by his absence, and they assured the
king that he was a true and faithful subject.
Kildare was attainted in a parliament convened by Sir Edward Poynings at Drogheda
in November 1494, and sent as prisoner to
the Tower of London. After a detention
there for two years the earl was pardoned,
and appointed lord deputy in 1496. In that
year he married, as his second wife, Elizabeth St. John, first cousin to Henry VII.
In 1498 Kildare presided at the first parliament held in Ireland under Poynings' law.
The statutes enacted on that occasion were
afterwards officially declared to have been
lost, but they have been brought to light and
published by the writer of the present notice.
Of Kildare's military operations the most
important was that in 1504 at Cnoctuagh,
near Galway, in which he obtained a victory
over forces commanded by some of the chief
nobles of Connacht and Munster. He was
installed as a knight of the Garter in May
1505, and continued as deputy in Ireland in
the early years of the reign of Henry VIII.
Kildare died in September 1513 of a wound
which he received in an engagement with a
sept of Leinster. He was interred in a
chapel which he had erected in the convent
of the Holy Trinity, now known as Christ
Church, Dublin. Contemporary chroniclers
styled him 'the great earl,' and described him
as 'a mighty made man, full of honour and
courage, soon hot and soon cold, somewhat
headlong and unruly towards the nobles
whom he fancied not.' His son Gerald succeeded as ninth earl [q. v.] A covenant in
the Irish language, executed about 1510, between Kildare and the sept of MacGeoghegan,
extant in the British Museum, has been reproduced in the third part of 'Facsimiles of
National MSS. of Ireland,' London, 1879.
[Archives of the Duke of Leinster; Unpublished Statute Rolls of Ireland ; Patent Rolls, Henry VII ; State Papers, Public Record Office, London; Harleian MS. 433; Holinshed's Chro-
