Maurice FitzGerald, 1st Earl of Desmond

Maurice FitzThomas FitzGerald, 1st Earl of Desmond (died 25 January 1356) in Dublin Castle, Dublin, Ireland was an Irish nobleman in the Peerage of Ireland, Captain of Desmond Castle in Kinsale, so-called ruler of Munster, and for a short time Lord Justice of Ireland. Called "Maurice the Great", he led a rebellion against the Crown, but he was ultimately restored to favour.

Background

He was the second son of Thomas FitzMaurice FitzGerald, 2nd Baron Desmond by his wife Margaret, whose family background is still in dispute (she belonged either to the family of Barry or de Burgh). His father died in 1298 by which patent also the county palatine of Kerry was confirmed to him and his heirs male, to hold of the Crown by the service of one knight's fee. This was part of a Crown policy of attempting to win the support of the magnates by conferring earldoms on them.

In January 1330 he was summoned by John Darcy, 1st Baron Darcy de Knayth, Lord Justice of Ireland, to fight armed Irish rebels, with a promise of the King's pay. It was Desmond who introduced the practice of Coigne and Livery, the quartering of troops on the inhabitants of the district they were sent to protect.

In 1339 he was engaged against Irish rebels in county Kerry where it is said he slew 1400 men, and took Nicholas, Lord of Kerry, prisoner, keeping him confined until he died as punishment for siding with the rebels against the Crown.

The same year he was present in the parliament held in Dublin. He was summoned by Writ dated at Westminster 10 July 1344, with Maurice FitzGerald, 4th Earl of Kildare, and others, to attend the King at Portsmouth "on the octaves of the nativity of the Virgin Mary", with twenty men-at-arms and fifty hobellars, at his own expense, to assist in the war against King Philip VI of France.

Rebellion Desmond, who had long been acting "with a certain disregard for the niceties of the law" now decided on open rebellion. In 1345 he presided at an assembly of Anglo-Irish magnates at Callan, County Kilkenny, ignored a summons to attend the Irish Parliament and attacked Nenagh. He was a formidable opponent, and for the next two years, his defeat was the main preoccupation of the Crown.

(2) Margaret, daughter of Connor O'Brien, Prince of Thomond, by whom he had no male issue.

(3) Aveline (or Eleanor), daughter of Nicholas FitzMaurice, 3rd Baron Kerry and Slany O'Brien, daughter of Connor O'Brien, Prince of Thomond (also Burke's Peerage 2003. Volume 2. Page 2238)

By his first wife he had one son, Maurice FitzGerald, 2nd Earl of Desmond.

By his third wife he had two sons: Nicholas (described by Lodge as "an idiot"), ancestor to MacRobert of Bellamullin and, say some , to the McKenzies, Earl of Seaforth in Scotland. Gerald FitzGerald, 3rd Earl of Desmond, nicknamed Gerald the Poet.

Ancestry