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Gearoid Mor, 'the Great Earl of Kildare', or simply Gerald Fitzgerald, has been, historiographically speaking, a great deceiver: and has paid for his deception in similar currency. Over time regarded as 'the uncrowned King of Ireland', his was a reputation which he himself would not have recognised, or indeed have welcomed.
He was the 8th earl of Kildare, the inheritor of a grand line of feudal dynastic succession, that had been, despite regular obstacles and set-backs, steadily expanding its power, and (in a term he would have embraced) its glory. As a ruling magnate in the name of the king and as head of Ireland's foremost aristocratic dynasty, his tenure marked the critical phase in what historians have termed the Kildare ascendancy. But for reasons other than those of the romantic narratives of the Great Earl 'reigning royally', Kildare's epithet is merited.
This biography, which expands on established research, accounts for the myriad of factors behind the Great Earl's prominence, including his manraed, estate management and his vast distribution of patronage. His supremacy bridged the worlds of Gaelic Ireland, the English lordship of Ireland and the centre of crown authority at court. In an overview of his exceptional career, this book study highlights the Great Earl's varied, seemingly contradictory, facets. He was an English subject who served as frontier baron, yet also a governing aristocrat that transcended cultural divides. He was not merely a traditional, old colonial marcher lord but a renaissance prince. In appreciating the combination of each of these, given the challenging circumstances of his age and considering a legacy that has evolved over the centuries, the Great Earl's extraordinary exploits can truly be deemed, as Steven Ellis observes, the 'stuff of legend'.
