Background
Kildare was the son of Gerald Fitzgerald, 11th Earl of Kildare and Mabel Browne.
Kildare was the son of Gerald Fitzgerald, 11th Earl of Kildare and Mabel Browne.
Nicknamed Henry "na Tuagh", or Henry "of the Battleaxes", he fought against the Spanish invaders in Ireland in 1588. In 1597 he helped quell the Earl of Tyrone"s uprising in Ulster, where he was mortally wounded. Kildare married Lady Frances Howard, daughter of Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham and Katherine Carey, in 1589.
He had at least two surviving daughters, Bridget, who married firstly Rory O"Donnell, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell, and secondly Nicholas Barnewall, 1st Viscount Barnewall and had issue by both marriages.
And Elizabeth, who married Luke Plunkett, 1st Earl of Fingall, but when he was Baron Killeen.