Offaly (FitzGerald)

Who he is

Name

Gerald FitzMaurice (Gerald fitz Maurice FitzGerald)

Title

Lord of Offaly; baron of Maynooth and Rathmore

Since

1176 (Maynooth and Rathmore, half the cantred of Offelan, from his elder brother); about 1193 (Offaly, by marriage)

Born

About 1150, in Wales

Family

Second son of Maurice FitzGerald (d. 1 September 1176) and Alice de Montgomery; married about 1193 Eve de Bermingham, heiress of Robert de Bermingham's barony of Offaly; their only son Maurice was born about 1194. Brothers: William FitzMaurice, baron of Naas; Alexander; Thomas (of Shanid, ancestor of the Desmond line). Cousin of the justiciar.

Confidence

high

Dies about 15 January 1204 (Mac Carthaigh's Book puts his death in 1201). Ancestor of the earls of Kildare.

Overlord

William Marshal, lord of Leinster

What it holds

• Maynooth and Rathmore (half of Offelan), with Maynooth castle
• The barony of Offaly in right of Eve de Bermingham: Rathangan and the eastern plain of Ui Failge
• Geashill (motte begun between 1185 and 1204) and Lea, claimed against Maurice FitzPhilip
• Croom in County Limerick, won in 1197

How it was acquired

Inheritance from Maurice FitzGerald through his brother (1176), confirmed by John in 1185; marriage (about 1193); conquest (Croom, 1197).

Allies and rivals

The justiciar Meiler is his cousin; Ua Conchobair Failge is the Irish king he is displacing; Maurice FitzPhilip disputes Geashill and Lea.

How things stand that morning

Holds Maynooth and the Offaly plain; Geashill and Lea are contested: in 1199, despite John's letters of protection, he was ordered to 'do right' to Maurice FitzPhilip over them.

Wealth

Grain lands of north Kildare; cattle of the Offaly plain.

Military

Maynooth castle and the Offaly mottes; Geraldine kin and Welsh followers.

Threats

• Ua Conchobair Failge
• The lawsuit over Geashill and Lea

Places of note

• Maynooth castle: Caput
• Geashill motte: Frontier castle in Ui Failge
• Croom: Limerick fee won in 1197

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Wikipedia (citing Orpen and the Calendar of Documents) gives dated holdings; bounds are approximate.

On the map: Approximate bounds.

Primary sources for Lordship of Ireland

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• Annals of Clonmacnoise, Anonymous; English translation of a lost Irish chronicle by Conall Mac Geoghegan (medieval original lost; translated 1627). A midland chronicle, tied to Clonmacnoise and the kings of Meath and Connacht, surviving only in a 1627 translation. Read online
• Annals of Inisfallen, Anonymous (monks of Inisfallen, Kerry, and earlier of Emly and Lismore) (the manuscript was written in 1092 and continued at Inisfallen in many contemporary hands to 1450). The Munster chronicle, written in Kerry in a hand close to the events. Read online
• Annals of Loch Ce, Various (compiled for the Mac Diarmada of Moylurg) (compiled 1580s from older annals; the medieval section rests on a Connacht chronicle). The fullest Connacht account of the year: Cathal Carrach's seizure of the kingship, Cathal Crobderg's flight north, the Connacht expedition of de Courcy and the Ui Neill on Crobderg's behalf and its defeat, William de Burgh's role, and the devastation of the province's churches, with the names of the Connacht nobles and clergy who died. Read online
• Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland by the Four Masters, Various; compiled by Micheal O Cleirigh and others (1632 to 1636, from medieval annals now partly lost). A seventeenth century compilation but it draws on lost medieval annals, so its 1200 entries add names and incidents missing elsewhere: the Connacht war and the English of Meath and Munster, the deaths of Irish kings and churchmen across the island, and raids in Thomond and Desmond. Read online
• Annals of Ulster, Various; compiled by Cathal Mac Maghnusa (compiled about 1498 from much older annals; the entries for 1200 derive from contemporary record). The most reliable Irish annal for the north. Read online
• Chronicle of Roger of Howden, Roger of Howden (about 1192 to 1201). The fullest single narrative for the year. Read online
• Mac Carthaigh's Book (Miscellaneous Irish Annals), Anonymous (a Munster compilation) (compiled in the later Middle Ages from Munster annals; manuscript of the 17th century). A Munster annal with a Mac Carthaig and Desmond slant, giving for the years around 1200 the kings of Desmond and Thomond, their wars with each other and with the English of Cork and Limerick, and the castles the settlers were building. Read online
• The History of William Marshal, Anonymous (a poet called John, writing for the Marshal family) (about 1224 to 1226). A knight's view of the Angevin succession: the council at Vaudreuil in April 1199 where the Marshal and Hubert Walter argued for John over Arthur, the Marshal's crossing to secure England, John's coronation, and the Marshal's part in Normandy in 1199 and 1200 as holder of Longueville and Orbec and a go-between with Philip. Read online

7 more in the sources library for The British Isles.