Gerald de Windsor

Gerald de Windsor (c. 1075 - 1135), (alias Gerald FitzWalter), was the first castellan of Pembroke Castle in Pembrokeshire (formerly part of the Kingdom of Deheubarth), in Wales, and was in charge of the Norman forces in southwest Wales. He was the ancestor of the FitzGerald and de Barry dynasties of Ireland, who were elevated to the Peerage of Ireland in the 14th century and was also the ancestor of the prominent Carew family, of Moulsford in Berkshire, Carew Castle in Pembrokeshire (in the Kingdom of Deheubarth) and of Mohuns Ottery in Devon (see Baron Carew, Earl of Totnes and Carew baronets).

Gerald was probably born at Windsor Castle in Berkshire, then a strategically placed motte-and-bailey royal fortress and a principal royal residence, hence his sobriquet "de Windsor". He was a younger son of Walter FitzOther (fl.1086, died 1100/1116), feudal baron of Eton in Buckinghamshire (now in Berkshire) who was Constable of Windsor Castle in Berkshire (directly across the River Thames from Eton), a principal royal residence of King William the Conqueror, and was a tenant-in-chief of that king of 21 manors in the counties of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Surrey, Hampshire and Middlesex, as well as holding a further 17 manors as a mesne tenant in the same counties. Walter FitzOther, as his surname Fitz asserts, was the son of Ohthere (Latinized to Otheus), who had been Constable of Windsor Castle during the reign of King Edward the Confessor (1042-1066). Walter FitzOther became a follower of the Norman invader King William the Conqueror (1066-1087), who appointed him as his first castellan of Windsor Castle and Keeper of the Forest of Windsor, an important royal hunting ground.