Background
Thomas Fitzgerald was born in London in 1513, the eldest son of Gerald FitzGerald, 9th Earl of Kildare and his first wife Elizabeth Zouche, who was a distant cousin of Henry VII.
Thomas Fitzgerald was born in London in 1513, the eldest son of Gerald FitzGerald, 9th Earl of Kildare and his first wife Elizabeth Zouche, who was a distant cousin of Henry VII.
He spent much oh his youth in England.
Thomas began with a show of defiance to Henry VIII which developed into open revolt, declaring that the king was a heretic and that all Englishmen were to leave Ireland at once.
Had the revolt received foreign assistance, it could have been formidable. In 1534 when his father was for the third time summoned to England to answer for his maladministration as lord deputy of Ireland, Thomas, at the council held at Drogheda, in February was made vice-deputy.
William Skeffington's relief army arrived in October, took Fitzgerald's stronghold at Maynooth, killed the garrison, and shattered the revolt.
Fitzgerald surrendered, on promise of life, was sent to London, and there executed in 1537 with five of his uncles.