John FitzThomas Fitzgerald was an Irish nobleman in the Peerage of Ireland, as 4th Lord of Offaly from 1287 and subsequently as 1st Earl of Kildare from 1316.
Background
He was the eldest son of Thomas FitzMaurice Fitzgerald (died 1271) and Rohesia de Street.Michel, he is noticed in 1291 in serious dispute with William Vescy, Lord of Kildare, Lord Justice of Ireland, about whom there were many complaints of oppression and neglect of the country"s defences.
Career
Fitzgerald appealed to King Edward II, who, to examine and judge the matter impartially, summoned them both to London to hear the cases, where it appears Fitzgerald had the advantage, challenging the Lord Justice to clear his name by combat, which was accepted. However, Vescy fled to France, whereupon the King pronounced Lord Offaly innocent, and settled upon him Vescy"s lordships and manors of Kildare, Rathangan, &c., which were forfeited to the Crown. In 1296 and 1299 he was summoned to fight for the Crown in the Scottish campaigns of Edward World War II With John Wogan, Lord Justice, and others he went a third time to war in Scotland in 1301-1302.
In 1312 he was sent as General at the head of an army into Munster to suppress armed Irish rebels.
On May 25, 1315, Edward Bruce, brother to King Robert the Bruce of Scotland, entered the north of Ireland with 6000 men, was crowned King of Ireland at Dundalk, and wasted the country. Lord Offaly, among others, commenced vigorous sporadic warfare to resist Bruce, leaving "great slaughter" of Scots and the Irish irregulars in his service.
Edward Bruce was eventually defeated and killed in the battle of Dundalk. King Edward II created Fitzgerald Earl of Kildare by Letters Patent dated May 14, 1316, the year in which he founded the friary at Adare, county Limerick.
However he died that same year, on Sunday September 12, 1316, at Laraghbryan, near Maynooth and was interred in the Franciscan Friary of Clan.
Kildare. Gerald (d1303)
Thomas Fitzgerald, 2nd Earl of Kildare, his successor. Joan Fitzgerald, married in 1302 to Edmund Butler, Earl of Carrick.
Elizabeth Fitzgerald, married to Nicholas Netterville, ancestor of Viscount Netterville.