Maurice FitzGerald, 4th Earl of Kildare

Maurice FitzThomas FitzGerald, 4th Earl of Kildare (died August 25, 1390) was a prominent Irish nobleman in the Peerage of Ireland and Lord Justice of Ireland.

The second son of Thomas FitzGerald, 2nd Earl of Kildare by his spouse Joan, daughter of Richard de Burgh, 2nd Earl of Ulster, he succeeded his brother Richard, 3rd Earl, who died aged 12 in 1329.

Maurice, Earl of Kildare, suppressed the insurrection in 1339 of the O'Dempsies in Leinster; and in November 1346, with the Lord Justice Bermingham, forced the O'Mores to submit and give hostages for their future good behaviour.

On January 26, 1347, he was summoned by Writ signed at Eltham Palace to serve King Edward III at the siege of Calais where he proceeded in May with thirty men-at-arms and was subsequently made leader of the army, and knighted.

With various irregulars and foot-soldiers assigned to defend county Kildare against rebel Irish, the earl was appointed, on September 14, 1358, supervisor of the four commissioners for raising and collecting their pay from that county.

On March 30, 1360, he was constituted Lord Justice of Ireland with an annual salary of £500 sterling. He was made Custos of the realm again on March 22, 1371, and a third time on February 16, 1375, until the return of Sir William Windsor.

In 1378 he petitioned King Richard II that he had, at his request, accompanied the Lord Justice Ormond "in a certain amount of great hosting" of the O'Morchoes of Slewmargy, with numerous horsement in his retinue, whereof six of his men were lost as well as four coats of mail and other armour. He asked for recompence, of which the King granted £10 sterling from the Exchequer on May 21, 1378.

On January 22, 1377, he was summoned to the parliament held at Tristledermot; and on September 11, 1381 to that held at Trim; and on April 29, 1382 to that held at Dublin.

He was, with Philip de Courtenay, Lord Justice, active in imposing law and order in Leinster and Meath and elsewhere, and in resisting rebels all at his own expense. His reward came partly in the form of a grant, dated April 20, 1386, of the estate of Sir William de London in the counties of Kildare and Meath during the minority of his son and heir, John de London. On August 5, 1389, he was enfeoffed in the manors of Leuchan, Kildroghte, and Kylmacrydocke, in County Dublin, held from the Crown in capite for him and his heirs forever.

On May 29, 1390, a Writ was issued to him to remove O'Connor, son of Dough O'Dempsie, the King's Irish enemy currently detained in Kildare Castle, to Dublin Castle for safer custody.

Dying at an advanced age in 1390 he was interred in the Church of the Holy Trinity in Dublin.

Maurice, Earl of Kildare, married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Batholomew Burghersh, KG ^{[disambiguation needed ]}., and had numerous children, of whom:

• Gerald FitzGerald, 5th Earl of Kildare
• Thomas FitzGerald, High Sheriff of County Limerick.

Peerage of Ireland
Preceded by Richard FitzGerald	Earl of Kildare 1329–1390	Succeeded by Gerald FitzGerald

References

• Lodge, John, & Archdall, Mervyn, A.M., The Peerage of Ireland, Dublin, 1789, vol.1, p.80-81.