Fitzgerald, Gerald (1487–1534)

Irish political leader. The son of the governor Gerald Fitzgerald, 8th Earl, he was appointed lord high treasurer of Ireland in 1504 and served three terms as lord deputy (1513–20, 1524–28, and 1532–34). These were interrupted by English attempts at direct rule, and he was held in custody on several occasions in England. During his final term of imprisonment, rumours of his execution led his son Thomas Fitzgerald to begin the disastrous Kildare uprising.

Fitzgerald was educated in England, where he had been left by his father as guarantee to the Tudor dynasty of his good conduct. He assumed the earldom and governorship but was distrusted by Henry VIII's close advisor Thomas Cromwell. Although he survived attempts to overthrow him in 1519 and 1526, Fitzgerald was wounded in battle and became vulnerable to intriguing by the Butlers, earls of Ormond and relatives of the new queen, Anne Boleyn. On their instigation he was summoned to London to answer charges of disloyalty, was imprisoned and died in the Tower.