Gerald de Windsor
Gerald de Windsor (c. 1075 - 1135), or Gerald FitzWalter of Windsor, was the first castellan of Pembroke Castle in Dyfed in the late 11th and early 12th centuries, and the Norman chieftain in charge of the Norman forces in southwest Wales. He was the progenitor and eponymous ancestor of the FitzGerald and de Barry dynasties of Ireland, who were elevated to the ranks of peers of Ireland in the 14th century.
Gerald's wife Nest ferch Rhys was a Welsh princess, daughter of Rhys ap Tewdwr, last King of Deheubarth. Nest is the female progenitor of the Fitzgerald Dynasty, and through her the Fitzgeralds are related to Welsh royalty and to the Tudors (Tewdwrs). The Tudors are descended from Nest's father Rhys ap Tewdwr (Anglicized to "Tudor"). Henry Tudor, King of England, was a patrilineal descendant of Rhys ap Tewdwr. Consequently, Gerald and Nest's offspring, the Fitzgeralds, are distant cousins to the English Tudors.
Family
Gerald was most likely born at Windsor, then a strategically placed motte-and-bailey fortress on the Thames, hence his sobriquet "de Windsor". He was a younger son of Walter FitzOtho by his wife, Beatrice. Walter fitz Otho was a Norman in the following of William the Conqueror, the first castellan of the strategic fortress of Windsor and Keeper of its Forest, entrusted to him upon its completion by the Conqueror. Gerald had at least three older brothers, William, Robert, and Maurice, and possibly several sisters as well.
Gerald's father held extensive lands as tenant-in-chief in Berkshire. Buckinghamshire, Hampshire, Middlesex, and Surrey, granted him by the Conqueror.[1] Upon his father's death after 1100, Gerald's oldest brother, William, inherited the office of Constable of Windsor; his second oldest brother, Robert, inherited Eton, whilst Gerald received the manor of Moulsford and several other estates in Berkshire.[2] Gerald's family was one of the"service families" on whom William the Conqueror relied for his survival.[3]
Career
The death in battle of Rhys ap Tewdwr, the "last king of the Britons", was the signal for a general Norman invasion of South Wales. In the general Norman invasion of Wales, the forces of Arnulf of Montgomery, youngest son of the powerful Roger de Montgomerie, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury, swept out from Shewsbury and ravaged south into Dyfed, where, at Pembroke, they built a rudimentary fortress later described by Gerald's famous grandson and namesake as a "slender fortress of turf and stakes. When he went back to England, Arnulf left the fortress and a small garrison in the charge of Gerald of Windsor, a stalwart, cunning man, his constable and lieutenant.[4]" The "slender fortress", as Giraldus described the first castle of Pembroke, "was not very strong and it offered little resistance.[4]
In 1096, two or three years after the establishment of Norman Pembroke, there was a general uprising in Wales against the Norman conquest and occupation. Gerald's defence of Pembroke excited the admiration of his contemporaries, all the more for his unique stratagems during the desperate stance. While fortress after fortress fell to the Welsh onslaught, Pembroke held out, despite the rigours of a siege by Uchtryd ab Edwin and Hywel ap Goronwy, which "lasted a long time" and "greatly reduced" Gerald and those under his charge. At one point, fifteen of Gerald's knights deserted, sneaking out of the fortress at night and leaving by boat.[4] When their desertion was discovered in the morning, Gerald transferred the deserters' estates to their followers and created the followers knights.
"When they had hardly any provisions left, Gerald, who, as I have said, was a cunning man,
created the impression that they were still well supplied and were expecting reinforcement
at any moment. He took four hogs, which was about all they had, cut them into sections, and
hurled them off over the palisades at the besiegers.The following day he thought of an even more ingenious strategism. He signed a letter with
his own seal and had it placed just outside the lodgings of Wilfred, Bishop of St David's, who
chanced to be in the neighbourhood. There it would be picked up almost immediately and the
finder would imagine that it had been dropped accidentally by one of Gerald's messengers.
The purport of the letter was that Gerald would have no need of reinforcements from Arnulf
for a good four months. When this despatch was read to the Welsh, they immediately aband-
oned the siege and went off home."
In 1094, in recognition of Gerald's successful defence of Pembroke, king William II of England, rewarded Arnulf, Gerald's overlord, with the formal lordship of Demetia, and invested him with the earldom of Pembroke.
In 1102, prior to the revolt of the Montgomery faction against Henry I, Gerald traveled to Ireland, where he negotiated the marriage of his overlord, Arnulf de Montgomery, with Lafracoth, daughter of the Irish king Muircheartach Ua Briain.
Gerald de Windsor held the office of Constable of Pembroke Castle from 1102 and was granted the manor of Moulsford in Berkshire (now Oxfordshire) by Henry I of England.
In 1105, Gerald built the castle of Little Cenarch.
In 1109, Nest was "abducted" by a cousin, Owain ap Cadwgan. According to the Brut y Tywysogion, Owain and his men infiltrated the couple's home (assumed by historians to be either Cilgerran Castle or Little Cenarch) and set fire to the buildings. When Gerald was woken by the noise, Nest advised him to escape by climbing out through the privy hole. Owain then seized Nest and her children and carried her off. However, some sources suggest that she went with him willingly.
Gerald's influence was such that Owain and his father soon lost much of their territory of Powys as a result of Owain's actions. Owain himself was obliged to go into exile in Ireland. When he returned, in 1116, Gerald hunted him down and killed him.[5]
His son William had a daughter named Isabella Le Gros whom married William De Haya Wallenisis and had David Walensis and Philip Walensis. David and Philip where considered "The Welshman" and the starting of the Welsh/Walsh (Philip) Walensis/Wallace (David) going from Scotland to Ireland. Philip Walensis had a son named Howell of Welsh Walensis.
The "Annals of Cambria" record 1116 as the date of Owain's death. As Gerald de Windsor appears no later in the "Annals" or the "The Chronicles of the Princes" of Wales, the presumption is that he did not long survive his enemy, Owain ab Cadwgan, and that the "Earls of Kildare Addenda" is wrong in putting his death so late as 1135.[6]
Descendents
Gerald's descendants include England's Tudor dynasty, Winston Churchill, John F. Kennedy, and Diana, Princess of Wales.[7]
References
- ↑ The Domesday Book Online
- ↑ Rev. E. Barry, Records of the Barrys of County Cork from the earlist to the present time., Cork, 1902, pg 3.
- ↑ Maund, Keri (2007). Princess Nest of Wales. Stroud, GL5 2QG: Tempus Publishing Ltd. ISBN 9780752437712.
- 1 2 3 Giraldus Cambrensis. Journey Through Wales I.xii.ii
- ↑ Welsh Biography Online
- ↑ Rev. E. Barry, Records of the Barrys of County Cork from the earlist to the present time., Cork, 1902, pg 4.
- ↑ Charles Mosely, editor. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes. Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd (2003), p 682