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Gerald Fitzgerald, 8th Earl of KildareGerald Fitzgerald, 8th Earl of Kildare (14) (? - ?), Lord Deputy of Ireland, and, in effect, actual Ruler. He was invested into the Knights of the Garter in 1505 [see Order of the Garter]. In 1534, the Kildares declared war on England, and later 6 of them were hanged. He was married to Lady Allison Eustace (14) (? - ?), daughter of Sir Rowland Eustace (15) (? - ?) of Harristown and his wife Lady Maude (15) (? - ?), daughter of Jenico d'Artois (16) (? - ?), widow of John Dondall (16) (? - ?) of Newton. His daughter was Lady Eleanor Fitzgerald (13) (? - ?) (sister of Gerald oge, 9th Earl of Kildare). She married (1st) Donnell Mac Fineere Mac Carthy-Reagh, (13) Prince of Carberry in Ireland. His father was Thomas Fitzgerald, 7th Earl of Kildare (15) (? - 1478), Lord Deputy of the Kingdom in 1454 and 1463. He married Lady Joan Butler (15) (daughter of James Butler, 7th Earl of Desmond (16) and of royal descent from "Edward I of England".) From another source on the Internet: Gerald Fitzgerald, 8th Earl (the Great) (d. 1513), son of Thomas Fitzgerald, 7th earl; nominated deputy-governor in Ireland by the Council in Dublin, 1477, and held office in opposition to a nominee of Edward IV; afterwards deputy for Richardf, Duke of York, and his son, Prince Edward; pardoned by Henry VII, and continued in office; attainted and imprisoned in the Tower as a partisan of Warbeck, 1494; reappointed deputy of Ireland, 1496; died of a wound received in battle with a Leinster "sept". At http://www.internetpages.ie/leinster/kildare/lexlip/index2.htm, I found the following: "Leixlip (town) has many fine walks which incorporate Leixlip's pleasant surroundings and a wealth of historical sites. St. Mary's Church was attacked by Robert the Bruce as early as 1317. He destroyed all but the tower. "Leixlip Castle was also constructed in the 12th century by Adam de Hereford, a supporter of Strongbow. In 1485 the castle and lands were granted to Gerald Fitzgerald, 8th Earl of Kildare, by Henry VII." Leixlip Castle was one of the outposts on "the pale," which was a ditch and wall that surrounded the four southeastern counties of Ireland. The English/Norman invaders of Ireland ruled in the pale (inside the wall) and County Kildare was the northwestern-most of these four counties, and thus closest to much of the warfare with the native Irish. I found the following at: http://www.net.yu/~shamrock/eire/history3.htm: "Chapter 3. "Early Tudor Period "The participation of the Anglo-Norman nobility from the coastal Pale in the Wars of the Roses greatly impaired English strength in Ireland. When Henry VII became king of England, he left Gerald Fitzgerald, 8th Earl of Kildare, as viceroy of Ireland, although Kildare belonged to the Yorkist party. "The assistance rendered by Kildare to the Yorkist pretenders Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck, however, finally compelled the king to replace him in 1494 with the English soldier and diplomat Sir Edward Poynings. Poynings represented the purely English interest, as distinct from the Anglo-Norman interest, which up to that time had prevailed in Ireland. He at once summoned the Parliament of Drogheda, which enacted legislation providing for the defence of the Pale and the reduction of the power of the Anglo-Irish lords. "The nobility was forbidden to oppress the inferior baronage, to make exactions upon the tenantry, or to assemble their armed retainers; and the Statutes of Kilkenny, which compelled the English and Irish to live apart and prohibited Irish law and customs in the Pale, were confirmed. All state offices, including the judgeships, were filled by the English king instead of the viceroys, and the entire body of English law was declared to hold for the Pale. "Most important of all was the so-called Poynings Law, which made the Irish Parliament dependent on the English king by providing that all proposed legislation should first be announced to the king and meet with his approval, after which he would issue the license to hold Parliament. "In 1494 Henry VII eventually re-established Kildare, the most powerful of the Irish nobles, as viceroy, and under Kildare's rule the Pale grew and prospered. After Kildare's death in 1513, the power of the Geraldine family steadily declined, as his successor, his son Gerald Fitzgerald (known as Garret Og), spent much of his time under careful scrutiny at the court of Henry VIII. "Rumours of the earl's death in 1534 precipitated a revolt by his son Thomas Fitzgerald, known as Silken Thomas. The rebellion was soon quashed and Thomas's execution in 1537 marked the end of the Kildare ascendancy."
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