FitzGerald

FitzGerald

The coat of arms of the Fitzgeralds of Kildare, Viscounts of Leinster, by Charles Catton (1790).
Ethnicity	Cambro-Norman
Place of origin	Wales
Name origin and meaning	"son of the spear ruler"

The FitzGerald dynasty is an Irish Hiberno-Norman or Cambro-Norman dynasty. They have been peers of Ireland since at least the 14th century, and are identified in The Annals of the Four Masters as being More Irish than the Irish themselves or Galls, due to assimilation with the native Gaelic aristocratic & popular culture. The dynasty has also been referred to as the Geraldines. They were established by the conquest of large swathes of Irish territory by the sons and grandsons of Gerald FitzWalter of Windsor (c. 1075 – 1135). Gerald was a Norman castellan in Wales, and is the male progenitor of the Fitzgerald dynasty ("fitz", from the Anglo-Norman "fils" indicating "sons of" Gerald).

Gerald's Welsh wife Nest ferch Rhys (c. 1085 – before 1136) is the female progenitor of the Fitzgeralds. She was the daughter of Rhys ap Tewdwr, last King of Deheubarth. Through her the Fitzgeralds are descended from the Welsh rulers of Deheubarth as well as related to the Tudors who are descended from the same Welsh royal line. Consequently, the Fitzgeralds are cousins to the Tudors (Tewdwrs) through Nest and her Welsh family.

In his poetry, Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, referred to Elizabeth FitzGerald (1527–89) as "Fair Geraldine".

The main branches of the family are:

The progenitor of the Irish FitzGeralds was a Cambro-Norman Marcher Lord, Maurice FitzGerald, Lord of Lanstephan; a younger son of the Norman chieftain Gerald FitzWalter of Windsor and his wife, Nest ferch Rhys of the Welsh royal House of Dinefwr. The Lord of Lanstephan was a major participant in the 1169 Norman invasion of Ireland.