Kildare

Kildare was the Irish seat of the senior FitzGerald family, whose lands lay around Kildare and Naas. In 1337 Maurice FitzGerald held the earldom under the English lordship.

Maurice served Edward III at the siege of Calais in 1347. The eighth and ninth earls later governed Ireland as Lord Deputy, but the tenth, Silken Thomas, rebelled against Henry VIII in 1534 and was executed three years later. The family recovered, becoming Dukes of Leinster in 1766.