History
Gerald Fitzgerald 11th Earl of Kildare was born in 1525. A time of great upheaval and volatility for an Anglo-Irish Aristocrat and especially, for a Roman Catholic. He was the son of Gerald Fitzgerald 9th Earl of Kildare and Elizabeth Grey Countess of Kildare. Gerald was born at a very auspicious time in European history. The light of intellectual liberalism had signaled the end of the dark ages for medieval Europe heralding a time of Scientific and artistic enlightenment and age of discovery - The Renaissance. Gerald would become the ultimate Renaissance man embracing the arts gaining a reputation as an Astrologist, Scientist and Alchemist and It was because of this interest in the emerging sciences that Gerald also gained a reputation as a Sorcerer, practitioner of the black arts and the soubriquet “The Wizard Earl”
