Henry FitzGerald, 12th Earl of Kildare

Henry FitzGerald, 12th Earl of Kildare (1562 – 1 August 1597) was an Irish peer and soldier.

Background

Kildare was the son of Gerald FitzGerald, 11th Earl of Kildare and Mabel Browne.^[1]

Military career

Nicknamed Henry "na Tuagh", or Henry "of the Battleaxes", he fought against the Spanish invaders in Ireland in 1588. In 1597 he helped quell the Earl of Tyrone's uprising in Ulster, where he was mortally wounded.^[1]

Family

Kildare married Lady Frances Howard, daughter of Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham and Katherine Carey, in 1589. They had no sons and Kildare was succeeded by his brother William FitzGerald, 13th Earl of Kildare.^[1] He had at least two surviving daughters, Bridget, who married firstly Rory O'Donnell, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell, and secondly Nicholas Barnewall, 1st Viscount Barnewall and had issue by both marriages; and Elizabeth, who married Luke Plunkett, 1st Earl of Fingall, but when he was Baron Killeen. She died in London in 1611, whereas her widowed husband married three more times and became Earl of Fingall in 1628.

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