Gerald (the Poet) FitzMaurice FitzGerald , (succ. ...). He was succ. by his grandson Thomas (+ 1420) who ca.1416 was usurped by James "the Usurper", the 3rd Earl's younger son. In the irish tradition the "Gearoid Iarla", a poet and lover of the Gaelic spirit, he was the leader of the "English by Blood", ruling four counties in the south of Ireland. Composing verses both in Gaelic and French, he is described in the annals of Clonmacnois as "a nobleman of wonderful bounty, cheerfulness in conversation, easie of access, charitable in his deeds, a witty and ingenious composer of Irish poetry, a learned and profound chronicler, and in fine one of the English nobility that had Irish learning and the professors thereof in greatest reverence of all the English of Ireland".
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