Peers of Ireland
Among the most celebrated families of Ireland, the FitzGeralds are a Hiberno-Norman or Cambro-Norman dynasty, and have been Peers of Ireland since at least the 14th century.
The main branches of the family are:
- the FitzGeralds of Kildare (Earls of Kildare from 1316, later Marquesses of Kildare and from 1766 Dukes of Leinster and Premier Peers of Ireland) and
- the FitzGeralds of Desmond (Barons Desmond, later Earls of Desmond).
The dynasty is also sometimes referred to as the Geraldines. Elizabeth FitzGerald (1527–89) was known as the "Fair Geraldine" from her surname.
The progenitor of the Irish Geraldines was a Cambro-Norman Marcher Lord, Maurice FitzGerald, Lord of Lanstephan, a female line descendant of the Welsh royal House of Dinefwr, and a participant in the 1169 Norman invasion of Ireland.
Read more about this topic: FitzGerald Dynasty
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“Out of Ireland have we come,
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—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)