Baron Gerald Fitz Maurice & Lady Eva de Birmingham

 39979312. Baron Gerald Fitz Maurice & 39979313. Lady Eva de Birmingham

~1150, Gerald born in Wales, s/o §§Sir Maurice fitz Gerald & Alice de Montgomery.

1166-67, Norsemen supported Roderic O’Connor of Connaught, claimant to the high kingship of Ireland, drove into exile their overlord, Dermot MacMurchada.

8/1167, Dermot MacMurchada, lord of Leinster, arrived in Bristol, with permission to recruit knights in Wales and the Marches for his battle to regain his own lordship of Leinster in Ireland.

5/1169, The force from Wales of about 400, linked up with Dermot’s forces and captured the town Wexford. [Additional forces would arrive at Wexford.]

1169, Maurice fitz Gerald the leader of another group arriving at Wexford. Gerald his son a member of the group. [Gilaldus, nephew of Marice, chronicaled 2 ships, 10 men-at-arms, 30 mounted retainer, and about 100 archers and foot soldiers.]

5/1170, Richard (189118350), earl of Strangul [aka ‘Strongbow’], giving command to Raymond le Gros, sent many of his vassals from Wales to Ireland [1200 soldiers]. (S) Journal of the Waterford & South-East of Ireland, V6, 1900, P88. [1170 – The forces, in battle at Baginbun Head, defeated a combination of Irish and Danes.] Of the combined forces, Maurice FitzGerald and Milo de Cogan were the other 2 commanders under Strongbow. Robert de Birmingham was also a leader of this force. (S) Peerage of England, V3, 1790, P94.

8/28/1170, Strongbow and Dermot, providing 500 ‘gallowglasses’ – infantry equipped and armed like the Norwegians, took Waterford from the Danes.

1170, Strongbow and Dermot marched on Dublin, capturing the city, and then to the southeast.

~1170, Eva born in Ireland, d/o §§Sir Robert de Birmingham.

4/1171, King Henry II became alarmed at the success of Richard’s knights; and ordered all his knights in Ireland to return to England.

5/1171, Dermot died. Strongbow, his son-in-law, succeeded as King of Linster, holding Dublin. Dublin was besieged by and estimated 30,000 by Roderic O’Connor. Maurice fitz Gerald with sons Gerald and Alexander were at Dublin. They launched a counter attack, routing the Irish. They then marched to relieve a siege of Wexford, and then to Waterford.

7/1171, Strongbow, King of Leinster, met Henry II at Newnham in Gloucester, England. King Henry took from Strongbow most of the lands that Strongbow himself had conquered and granted them back to Strongbow as lands held by the grace of the king. Richard also granted his father-in-law’s title of King of Leinster.

10/1171, Gerald and his father submitted to King Henry’s invasion of Ireland. [King Henry had an army of 4500. Most Irish kings and bishops submitted to his rule.]

1172, Robert de Birmingham, baron of Offaly [Ireland]. (S) Archaeologia Cambrensis, 1859, P90.

Aft. 1172, Eva’s father died.

1176, Gerald’s father died in Wexford, Ireland, buried abbey of the Gray Friars.

9/3/1189, Richard I succeeded King Henry II of England.

By 1193, Gerald married Eva inheriting the barony of Offaly.

5/27/1199, John crowned king of England.

Bef. 1/15/1204, Gerald, baron Offaly, co. Kildare, died.

[––Eva––]

Eva married Geoffrey Fitz Robert.

1203-11, Geoffrey FitzRobert, baron of Kells, founded Kells abbey … “at the desire and with consent of my wife Eva” [de Birmingham]. (S) Walsh 1170-1690, Walsh, 1905, P83-84.

1211, Geoffrey Fitz Robert died.

10/28/1216, Henry III, age 9, crowned king of England.

11/26/1216, William Marhall, acting for the king, order Geoffrey de Marisco, the justiciar, to cause Maurice FitzGerald to have seisin of the land of Maynooth, and of the lands whereof Gerald, his father, died seised in Ireland.

Bef. 2/1218, Eva married 3^rd Geoffrey de Marisco.

1218, A controversy touching the title of 4 carucates of land in Dalkey between Eva de Birmingham, wife of G. de Marisco, Justice of Ireland, and Reginald Talbot. (S) Birmingham 120 Years Ago, Scarse, 1896, P.vii.

6/1223, The 1218 contraversy involving Eva decided in favor of Talbot.

Bef. 12/10/1226, Eva died: The King issued a mandate to the "barons, knights, and free-tenants of Leinster" touching a plaint before the court of William Earl Marshal between Maurice FitzGerald, plaintiff, and Geoffrey de Marisco, justiciar of Ireland, defendant. [Geoffrey de Marisco had married widow Eva de Birmingham, and by right should have custody for life of his wife’s inheritance.]

(S) The Earls of Kildare, Marquis of Kildare, 1858. (S) Miscellanea Genealogica Et Heraldica, V1, 1874. (S) Maurice FitzGerald – The Creation of a Dynasty, Cariocorrigan, 2007, Co. Kildare Online Elec. Hist. Journal.

Family notes:

·         Giraldus, the chronicler, gives a flattering description of his uncle Maurice FitzGerald: “A man of dignified aspect and modest bearing, of a ruddy complexion … neither tall nor short. … moderation was the rule … naturally of a good disposition, … man of few words, but his language was polished …, more reason than eloquence, in what he said … In war he was intrepid, and second to no man in valour … a man not altogether without fault, but not stained by any great and notorious crime.”

Children of Gerald and Eva:

i. Maurice Fitz Gerald (19989656), born 1194 in Ireland.

ii. Gerald fitz Gerald, born ? in Ireland.

Giraldo filio Morici, a witness to a charter of King John to the church of St. Mary of Jeripont, Ireland. (S) Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 1907, P180.