Even their indignant chronicler admits however that the Geraldines did not do so very badly for themselves!  Maurice Fitzgerald, the eldest of the brothers, became the ancestor both of the Earls of Kildare and Desmond; William, the younger, obtained an immense grant of land in Kerry from the McCarthys, indeed as time went on the lordship of the Desmond Fitzgeralds grew larger and larger, until it covered nearly as much ground as many a small European kingdom.  Nor was this all.  The White Knight, the Knight of Glyn, and the Knight of Kerry were all three Fitzgeralds, all descended from the same root, and all owned large tracts of country.  The position of the Geraldines of Kildare was even more important, on account of their close proximity to Dublin.  In later times their great keep at Maynooth dominated the whole Pale, while their followers swarmed everywhere, each man with a G. embroidered upon his breast in token of his allegiance.  By the beginning of the sixteenth century their power had reached to, perhaps, the highest point ever attained in these islands by any subject.  Whoever might be called the Viceroy in Ireland it was the Earl of Kildare who practically governed the country.

Originally there were three Palatinates—­Leinster granted to Strongbow, Meath to De Lacy, and Ulster to De Courcy.  To these two more were afterwards added, namely, Ormond and Desmond.  The power of the Lord Palatine was all but absolute.  He had his own Palatinate court, with its judges, sheriffs, and coroners.  He could build fortified towns, and endow them with charters.  He could create as many knights as he thought fit, a privilege of which they seem fully to have availed themselves, since we learn that Richard, Earl of Ulster, created no less than thirty-three upon a single occasion.  For all practical purposes the Palatinates were thus simply petty kingdoms or principalities, independent in everything but the name.

Strongbow, the greatest of all the territorial barons, left no son to inherit his estates, only a daughter, who married William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke.  Through her his estates passed to five heiresses, who married five great nobles, namely, Warrenne, Mountchesny, De Vesci, De Braosa, and Gloucester.  Strongbow’s Palatinate of Leinster was thus split up into five smaller Palatinates.  As none of the new owners moreover chose to live in Ireland, and their revenues were merely drawn away to England, the estates were after awhile very properly declared forfeited, and went to the Crown.  Thus the one who of all the adventurers had cherished the largest and most ambitious hopes in the end left no enduring mark at all in Ireland.