Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 19.djvu/144

Fitzgerald have left office in debt. In 1233 he was ordered to seize Miloc Castle from Richard de Burgh, and distrain for this noble's debts to the king (February 1234), and was afterwards empowered to take further measures (Royal Letters, i. 410-14). In May 1237 he was bidden to let the earl's friends buy their pardon. The marriage of Henry's sister, Isabella, to the emperor Frederic II brought with it fresh demands, and Maurice was expected to wring a scutage of two marks and a thirtieth from his Irish subjects. He was granted safe-conducts to England in May and July 1234, as well as in 1237 and 1242. He seems to have actually been in England late in 1234 or early in 1235, and perhaps in 1244. He was ordered to provide men, money, provisions, and galleys for the Gascon expedition of 1242. In January 1245 he was bidden to build four wooden towers for the expedition against Wales (,i. 302, 304, 313, &c. ;, p. 31). Accompanied by Felim he took a part in this war, in which he seems to have incurred the king's displeasure by putting some of his Irish followers to death in Anglesey. In 1237 the king sent over a commissioner to audit his accounts, and on 4 Nov. 1245 he resigned his office to John Fitzgeoffrey, the son of a previous justiciar (, i. 408, 440, &c. ;, p. 31 ; , pp.76-7; ,p.191,&c.) Matters were finally compromised by the infliction of a fine of four hundred marks (2 July 1248). This fine Maurice was at first permitted to pay off by instalments ; later the payments were respited (29 April 1250), and finally (10 June 1251) in a great measure remitted (September 1252). In August 1248 Maurice had gone to Gascony on the king's service. In December 1253 he was again summoned to Gascony to take part in the meditated war with the king of Castile. A later brief seems, however, to show that the new justiciar crossed the sea (Loch Cé, p. 405), leaving Maurice as his deputy in Ireland (, vol. i. Nos. 305-7, 356-7). Meanwhile, though no longer justiciar, he had been equally active in Ireland. In 1248 he expelled Roderic O'Canannan from Tir-Conaill. Next year he invaded Connaught to avenge the death of Gerald Mac Feorais, and a little later led an expedition from Munster and Connaught to meet another under the justiciar at Elphin. The united armies deposed Felim O'Conor, setting up his nephew Turlough in his place. Felim was restored by Brian O'Neill and the Cenel-Eoghain in 1250. In the same year, probably in return for Brian's interference in Connaught, Maurice invaded the land of the Cenel-Eoghain, but failed to reduce its lord. In 1253 he made another futile attack upon Brian O'Neill and the Cenel-Eoghain, and two years later he crossed over 'to meet the king of the Saxons' at about the same time as Felim's envoys. The 'Four Masters' represent him as in 1257 accompanying the new lord justice against Godfrey O'Domhnaill, and distinguished himself in a single combat with Godfrey. Matthew Paris, however, seems to put Maurice's death in the beginning of 1257, whereas the 'Irish Annals' date Godfrey's death, which was due to wounds received in this expedition, in 1258. The State Papers show conclusively that he was alive on 8 Nov. 1256, but dead by Christmas 1257 (Loch Cé ; Ann. Four Masters ;, v. 642 ; , ii. 524, 563 ; cf. , p. 15). Fitzgerald had served the king long and faithfully. In 1255 Henry wrote to thank him for his strenuous defence of the country. As justiciar he was vigorously engaged in fortifying castles against the Irish ; by 2 Nov. 1236 he had already fortified three, and was bidden to build two more in the coming summer. For their construction he was allowed to draft workmen from Kent (Royal Letters, i. 400 ;, p. 352, &c.) On Richard de Burgh's resignation he was empowered to take over all the royal castles, even including the great stronghold of Miloc. When the same noble died his castles were put in Maurice's charge (23 Aug. 1243), and ten years later (3 Aug. 1253) Richard's son, Walter, brought an assize 'mort d'ancestor' against the warden. His deposition from the justiciarship was due to his remissness on the Welsh expedition of 1245; but, adds the chronicler, he bore the disgrace patiently, as since his son's death he had learned to despise the honours of earth (, iv. 488). In character Maurice was 'miles strenuus et facetus nulli secundus.' 'He lived nobly all his life.' His piety may be seen from his religious foundations : Sligo (Dominican), Ardfert (Franciscan, 1253), and Youghal (Franciscan, 1224) (, v. 642 ; Loch Cé; Ann. Four Masters, sub an. ; Earls of Kildare). In 1235, when his soldiers were laying Connaught waste, Maurice protected the canons of Trinity on the island of Loch Cé. Later he presented (1242) the hospital of Sligo to the same foundation (Loch Cé, pp. 329, 359), and, according to Clyn (p. 8), he died in the habit of a Franciscan. Fitzgerald is reckoned the second or third baron of Offaly. This barony he held of the Earl of Pembroke (to whom on 30 May 1240 he was ordered to do homage) or of his heirs. He appears as Lord of Maynooth and Gallos in Decies. According to the later genealogists