Thomas FitzGerald, 2nd Earl of Kildare

Thomas FitzGerald, 2nd Earl of Kildare, commanded thirty thousand men against Edward Bruce in 1318 and later served twice as Lord Justice of Ireland. He died at Maynooth in 1328 and was buried in the Franciscan Friary at Kildare, where his son Richard also lay on the right-hand side. The county that bears his name was shaped by this family’s military reach and administrative power during a volatile period in Irish history.