Sir Thomas de Rokeby first came to the attention of King Edward III in 1327, after his return from having been a prisoner in Scotland, for being the squire who had first pointed out the approach of the Scottish Army during the invasion. As a reward, he was knighted and given lands worth £100 a year. He served in many political offices throughout the years, including High Sheriff of Yorkshire and oversaw Stirling Castle and Edinburgh Castle while they were held by the English.

In December of 1349, Rokeby was made Justiciar, the governor of Ireland. While holding this position, he undertook a general overhaul of the Irish administration, aimed particularly at the detection of corruption and the removal of incompetent officials. He was also successful in defeating the uprising of the Clan MacCarthy.

Several more rebellions occurred and Rokeby suffered many military defeats causing him to be recalled to London in 1355. His replacement, the Earl of Desmond, died a year later and Rokeby was reappointed Justiciar. He returned to Ireland, only to die soon afterwards at Kilkea Castle in 1356.

The Old Norman tradition of adding “Fitz” – “son of” – before a father’s name begins to unlock this centuries-old story; while the Germanic compound “Gerald”, from “ger” (spear) and “waltan” (rule) tells of swashbuckling times when might was right. And so it was, in the days of castles and conquests, that the FitzGeralds would become pre-eminent in Ireland, with their fulcrum of power here in Ireland’s Ancient East. 

Fadó, Fadó. Long, long ago a Norman adventurer called Gerald Fitzwalter, a castellan in Wales, married a Welsh princess, Nesta, and she bore him famous children “by whom the southern coast of Wales was saved for the English and the bulwarks of Ireland stormed.” 

Following the Anglo-Norman invasion in 1169 sons and grandsons of Gerald established their family’s fortunes across great swathes of Irish territory. The FitzGeralds divided between two main branches, the Houses of Desmond and Kildare, together “by far the most powerful and illustrious of the Anglo-Norman families in Ireland”, as the iconic Annals of the Four Masters relate. 

Through marriage, the FitzGeralds of Kildare gained ownership of Kilkea Castle, built from 1180 on lands granted by the redoubtable Anglo-Norman knight Strongbow. They later won many titles and honours: becoming Earls and Marquesses of Kildare, and Dukes of Leinster, the premier dukedom in the peerage of Ireland.

But delve a little deeper. Peel back the layers of history. Tales from Ireland’s Ancient East are rich and complicated. Plots twist and turn. Maintaining position and power was not simply a question of fighting – shrewd politicking, dynamic marriages, making and breaking alliances all played their part too. It was said that the FitzGeralds became so intermingled with the native Gaelic Irish and their ways that they were “Hibernicis ipsis Hiberniores, or more Irish than the Irish themselves.”

And so the names of the FitzGeralds, heroes and anti-heroes, who won, lost and regained family fortunes while playing prominent roles in Irish history, speak volumes to us down the ages: John Fitzthomas FitzGerald “the redoubtable”, rewarded “for his good service” with the Earldom of Kildare in 1316 by King Edward II. “Shaun Cam” or “Hump-backed John” FitzGerald, 6th Earl, who defeated an Irish invasion of the Pale (English lands) in 1421 – Kilkea Castle, between the territories of the native Irish and the Pale, stood in a strategically important spot.  

The 8th and 9th Earls: Gearóid Mór (“Gerald the Great”) and Gearóid Óg (“Young Gerald”) each represented the English King as Lord Deputy of Ireland in the 15th and 16th centuries. The 10th Earl, hot-headed “Silken Thomas” lost the family titles and lands, only for his half-brother the “Wizard Earl” to regain them through a series of romantic adventures. These and many more have written their names and tales into history. 

FitzGeralds one and all. 

Duke of Leinster is a title of Irish nobility with subsidiary titles including: Marquess of Kildare, Earl of Kildare, Earl of Offaly, Viscount Leinster, Baron Offaly and Baron Kildare. 

The Welsh-Norman branch of the Fitzgerald dynasty, who came to Ireland in 1169, were initially made the Earls of Kildare and subsequently the Dukes of Leinster. The earldom was created in 1316 for John Fitzgerald for his service to King Edward I during the Scottish War of Independence. 

Many prominent Fitzgerald’s such as Silken Thomas, The Wizard Earl and Lord Walter Fitzgerald called Kilkea Castle home. The Castle has also been associated with Lord Edward Fitzgerald of the 1798 rebellion.

The coat of arms of the Dukes of Leinster derives from the legend that John Fitzgerald, First Earl of Kildare, as a baby in Woodstock Castle, was trapped in a fire when a pet monkey rescued him. The Fitzgerald’s then adopted a monkey as their crest. The family motto “Crom A Boo” comes from the medieval Croom Castle and “Abu”, meaning “up” in Irish; Crom Abu was also the Fitzgerald’s’ medieval warcry.

If ever a tale should illustrate the dramatic twists and turns of history in Ireland’s Ancient East, it is that of “rash and headlong” Silken Thomas.

Plot and counterplot, jealousies and betrayals, false rumours – each played their part in pushing Lord Thomas to rebellion against England’s Henry VIII: a rebellion that lost the FitzGerald family its birthright to the Earldom of Kildare as well as Kilkea Castle and estates. The fate of the dynasty would then precariously lie with a 12-year-old child.

So, just how did this happen, all within just three short, tumultuous years?

Thomas FitzGerald (1513–1537) was the son of Gerald FitzGerald, 9^th Earl of Kildare and his first wife Elizabeth Zouche. As Lord Deputy of Ireland – the King’s representative in Ireland – Gerald wielded immense power that attracted envy and mistrust, not least from the English court.

And so it happened that early in 1534 Earl Gerald was summoned yet again to London to account for various actions to King Henry VIII. Renowned for his intelligence and diplomacy, in all probability the Earl might as usual have made his peace. Except that this time was different.

Before he left Ireland, Gerald had appointed his son as acting Lord Deputy in his absence. Known as Silken Thomas for the rich style in which he and his retinue dressed, the youth was scarcely 21 years old.

Family enemies wasted no time in exploiting Silken Thomas’s inexperience and fiery nature. In June 1534 (false) rumours spread that his father had been executed at the Tower of London and the English government were out for Thomas too. He summoned the Council of Ireland to St Mary’s Abbey, Dublin, himself hastening there accompanied by 140 armed warriors in their silk-fringed helmets.

Chaotic scenes ensued. Lord Thomas, inflamed by chants from a bard in his retinue, refused to listen to reason and, renouncing his allegiance to the Lord of Ireland (Henry VIII), he cried: “I am none of Henry’s Deputy, I am his foe”. He threw down the sword of state and rushed out. The rebellion had begun.

Rallying followers, Thomas “did many injuries to the English” and in July attacked Dublin Castle, which was holding out for the King. However his army was now routed and suddenly his supporters began to melt away – in no small part due to the terrible murder of the Archbishop of Dublin, a longstanding enemy of the FitzGeralds.

Before the year was out, Thomas’s father Earl Gerald, hearing of his son’s rebellion, had died “of grief” in the Tower of London. Some months later, Thomas was persuaded to surrender and gave himself up to Lord Leonard Grey, new Lord Deputy of Ireland (and coincidentally Thomas’s step-uncle) on condition of his personal safety.

Any such assurances soon proved false and in October 1535 Thomas was sent as a prisoner to the Tower of London. There, in a far cry from his Silken riches, he languished in misery, writing piteously to a former servant in Ireland to beg for £20 to buy food and clothes, and complaining, “I have gone wolward [shirtless] and barefoot and barelegged divers times (when it hath not been very warm)”.

Thomas, still only 24 years old, and his five uncles were executed at Tyburn in 1537. The rebellion had failed but henceforth it sharpened Henry VIII’s focus on Irish matters including curbing the powers of the Lord Deputy.

For the FitzGeralds of Kilkea Castle and Kildare, the rebellion had been a disaster. The Earldom was forfeited, their estates confiscated and their family proscribed. Their hopes for the future lay with Silken Thomas’s 12-year-old half-brother Gerald, and spies and enemies were already trying to track the boy down. After many adventures, Gerald (later known as the Wizard Earl) would survive and family fortunes would be restored – but that’s another story.

Mabel was the wife of Gerald FitzGerald the 11^th (“Wizard”) Earl of Kildare: for in both legend and life, through love and loss, she was loyal to the end. It’s usually the men who steal the headlines in stories of castles and conquests in Ireland’s Ancient East, but there have been many leading ladies too. So hear the tale of Mabel (c. 1536–1610), “a lady of great worth and virtue”. 

You may already know how the Wizard Earl (1525–1585) came by his nickname through his reputation for dabbling in the “dark arts” here in Kilkea Castle – boundaries between alchemy and occult could be somewhat blurred at the time. In the legend telling how the Earl disappeared, it is Mabel who stands at the heart of events. For as the old ballad by Thomas Greene relates, it was she who urged her husband to demonstrate his powers by shape-shifting in front of her very eyes and she who sealed his fate.      

Warning his wife that if she showed any fear he would have to leave her forever, the Wizard Earl set her three tests before changing form. First, he caused the River Griese to flood into the castle and rise around the Countess, but she stayed resolute. Second, he conjured up a serpent-monster from the water that coiled around her. She didn’t flinch. Finally, he summoned up the spirit of a long-departed friend who greeted Mabel. She remained steadfast.

Convinced of his wife’s courage, the Earl now told her to close her eyes and re-open them when he stamped three times. She dutifully did so and beheld her husband transformed into a little black bird that hopped upon her shoulder. But as Mabel went to stroke the creature, the castle cat suddenly appeared and pounced. Fearful for Gerald’s safety, she fainted, and so as prophesied, the Earl vanished forever.

Whatever the legend, life was colourful for Mabel too. Born in Sussex, England, the daughter of Sir Anthony Browne, Knight of the Garter and Master of the Horse, she was well connected and her family prospered in the Tudor courts, despite their Roman Catholic faith at a time when the Reformation and Henry VIII were overturning the old order.

Then onto the scene burst handsome young Gerald FitzGerald, fresh from years on the run on the Continent after his elder half-brother Silken Thomas had upset Henry VIII and been executed for treason, losing their family their Irish lands and the Earldom of Kildare. With Henry dead (1547), Gerald dared appear at the court of Edward VI where, cloaked in an aura of romantic adventures, he cut a dashing figure. A teenaged Mabel, it’s said, promptly fell in love with the “valiant, affable” youth at a royal masked ball and the couple were married shortly afterwards early in the 1550s.   

Marriage to Mabel helped Gerald to be accepted back into public life, and while Mabel became a gentlewoman of Queen Mary’s Privy Chamber, Gerald won thanks from the Queen by helping to suppress the Wyatt Rebellion. Through the reigns of both Edward and Mary, Gerald’s titles and lands were restored and the 11^th Earl of Kildare – the Wizard Earl – and his Countess came to live again at the FitzGerald family seat of Kilkea Castle.

Mabel bore her husband five children and although he sired a further seven offspring out of wedlock she remained a loyal wife. Gerald oscillated in matters of faith as different political winds blew, but Mabel remained true to her Roman Catholic upbringing, even at risk of personal danger. She would outlive her husband by 25 years. 

But that’s not quite the end of the story. Because the ballad Legend of Kilkea Castle and the Wizard Earl says that far from vanishing forever, the spirit of the Earl will awake from an enchanted sleep and return to Kilkea Castle riding a white charger shod with silver shoes on the 7^th day of the 7^th month of every 7^th year.

And when he comes, oh then let all
True men and women pray
That his good wife may meet him at
The Castle of Kilkea.