Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 19.djvu/141

Fitzgerald countess reached at least the age of 104, and that, until some further evidence, such as the date of her marriage, be forthcoming, it may further reasonably be conjectured that the addition of ten years would very probably be a nearer approximation to the truth. The stories of her death being caused by a fall from an apple, a walnut, or a cherry tree, may be dismissed as fictions; while that of her journey to London to beg relief from Queen Elizabeth or James I has been shown by Mr. Sainthill to belong to the Countess Elinor, widow of Gerald, the fifteenth and attainted earl of Desmond. Nine or ten portraits of the old countess are said to be in existence; but only two of these, respectively at Muckross Abbey and Dupplin Castle, with possibly a third at Chatsworth, are supposed to represent her, the others being pictures of other persons by Rembrandt and Gerard Douw.

[Article in the Quarterly Review for March 1853, pp. 329-54; Archd. A. B. Rowan's Olde Countesse of Desmonde, 1860; Richard Sainthill's Old Countess of Desmond, an Inquiry, 2 vols. (privately printed), 1861-3; article (by J. Gough Nichols) in the Dublin Review, 1862, li. 51-91; Journal of the Kilkenny Archæol. Soc., new ser. iv. Ill, 1864; W. J. Thoms's Longevity of Man, 1879; Sir J. Harington's Short View of the State of Ireland, 1879, p. 10; see also Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. vii. 313, 365, 431, 3rd ser. i. 301, 377, 5th ser. xi. 192, 332.] 

FITZGERALD, MAURICE (d. 1176), English conqueror of Ireland, was the son Nesta, daughter of Rhys the Great, king of South Wales (Exp. Hib. p. 229). He was thus half-brother to Robert Fitzstephen [q. v.] and Meiler Fitzhenry [q. v.], and brother of David II [q. v.], bishop of St. David's (ib.; . Itin. Cambr. p. 130; Earls of Kildare, p. 3). His father Gerald, according to later genealogists, was grandson of Walter Fitzother, who figures in 'Domesday' as a tenant at Windsor and elsewhere, and lord of manors in Surrey, Hampshire, Berkshire, Middlesex, and Buckinghamshire. In the early years of the twelfth century his father was steward of Pembroke Castle. He was probably dead by 1136, in which year the Welsh annals show that Nesta's second husband, Stephen, and the 'sons of Gerald' were fighting against the Welsh prince, Owen (Domesday, 30 a 1, 36 a 1, 61 b 1, 130 a 1, 151 a 1; Ann. Cambr. pp. 30, 34, 40).

In 1168, when Dermot, king of Leinster, was in South Wales seeking for aid to re-establish himself in his kingdom, Rhys ap Griffith had just released his three-year prisoner, Robert Fitzstephen, on condition that he should help him against Henry II. Robert's half-brother, Maurice Fitzgerald, now petitioned that he might carry his kinsman to Ireland instead; for Dermot had promised to give the two knights Wexford and the two adjoining 'cantreds' in return for their services (Exp. Hib. p. 229; Ann. Cambr. p. 50). Robert crossed at once (May 1169), but Maurice did not land till some months later, when he reached Wexford with 140 followers. Here Dermot came to meet him, and led him to his royal city of Ferns. In the expedition against Dublin, Maurice commanded the English contingent, while Robert Fitzstephen stayed behind to fortify the rock of Carrick, near Wexford (Exp. Hib. pp. 229, 233, 245;, p. 56; cf. Ann. Cambr. p. 52; Annals of the Four Masters, sub 1169, 1170; Annals of Boyle, p. 28). Dermot had already fulfilled his promise as regards Wexford, and when the Earl of Clare did not come according to his engagement, he offered his daughter, with the succession to the kingdom, to Robert or Maurice, an offer which both declined on the plea that they were already married (Exp. Hib. p. 246). Earl Richard at last landed at Waterford, 24 Aug. 1170. The town was taken next day, Maurice and Robert arriving with Dermot in time to save the lives of the nobler captives (ib. p. 255).

Next year Maurice was present at the great siege of Dublin. His anxiety for the safety of his half-brother Robert, whom the Irish of Wexford were besieging in the turf fort of Carrick, led him to propose the famous sally from the city, when some ninety Norman knights routed King Roderic's army of thirty thousand men. Though the English started southwards on the day after the victory, they were too late to relieve Robert Fitzstephen, who had surrendered on receiving false news as to the fall of Dublin (ib. p. 266, &c.)

Henry II's arrival seems to have brought the temporary downfall of the Geraldines. The men of Wexford attempted to curry favour with the king by giving him their prisoner; and, though Robert was soon set free, he and Maurice were seemingly deprived of Wexford and the neighbouring cantreds (ib. p. 278). Henry kept Wexford in his own hands, entrusting it to William Fitzaldhelm before he left the country, but now, or a little later, Earl Richard gave Maurice 'the middle cantred of Ophelan,' i.e. the district about Naas in Kildare (ib. pp. 286, 314;, pp. 146-7). On leaving Dublin, Henry charged the two brothers, at the head of twenty knights, to support the new governor of this city, Hugh de Lacy; and it must have been shortly after this that Maurice, forewarned by his nephew's