England in time for the battle of Evesham. It was also
to Geoffrey’s castle of Ludlow that Edward fled on
escaping from Montfortian captivity in May 1265.
Later, Geoffrey’s loyalty during another constitutional
crisis, and his experience as an assistant to the marshal
of the army in Wales in 1282, led to his appointment
as marshal of the king’s army for the 1297 expedition
to Flanders.
In 1270, Geoffrey made one of the most astute
moves of his career in accompanying Lord Edward on
crusade. This shared experience secured the bonds of
his relationship with the future king of England, and
it is no coincidence that de Geneville was named as the
new justiciar of Ireland in 1273. De Geneville has been
criticised as justiciar largely on account of his failure
to solve the problems caused by the native Irish in the
Wicklow mountains. In defending himself against such
criticism, however, Geoffrey would probably have
referred to the difficulty of the job and the “secret
opposition” which he faced. The monks of Roscom-
mon, at least, gave a favorable report of him as justiciar
noting that he was “a man of great condition and
discretion.”
Geoffrey continued to serve Edward I after his
resignation as justiciar. In addition to his service in
the king’s armies in Wales and Flanders, he was
entrusted as an envoy of the English king. His first
diplomatic engagement had been in 1267, during the
negotiations with Llywelyn ap Gruffudd of Wales;
after 1280, his commissions usually took him to the
continent, where he was employed in attempts to
secure a general European peace (1280–1283,
1290–1291) and a final peace between England and
France (1297–1301). During 1280 to 1281, at least,
his employment as an envoy at Paris afforded him
the opportunity to winter on his estate at Vaucouleurs.
He returned from his last and arduous diplomatic
mission to Rome in April 1301, at the age of seventy-
five. Thereafter Geoffrey may not have left Ireland
until his death on October 21, 1314.
In 1252, it was far from clear that Geoffrey would
concentrate his career as a magnate in Ireland. Indeed,
the first concrete evidence of de Geneville visiting
Ireland dates from 1262. Nevertheless, it was to his
Dominican Priory of Trim, and not the college that he
founded at Vaucouleurs, that Geoffrey chose to retire
in 1308, and where he was ultimately buried. Long
before this date, Geoffrey had unburdened himself of
his lands in England and Wales (to his son Peter in
1283) and Vaucouleurs (to his second son Walter in
1294). Trim was not necessarily the obvious choice to
retain in his own hands.
Between 1279 and 1307, Geoffrey was engaged in
an ongoing battle with the Dublin administration over
the extent of his jurisdiction within his liberty of Trim,
which was seized by the government in 1293 and 1302.
Geoffrey’s long service to the Crown, however, was
repaid with support from Edward I, who generally
responded very favorably to Geoffrey’s lengthy peti-
tions. On Geoffrey’s retirement, these well-defended
rights passed to his granddaughter Joan and her hus-
band Roger Mortimer.
BETH HARTLANDReferences and Further Reading
Bartlett, Robert. The Making of Europe: Conquest, Coloniza-
tion, and Cultural Change, 950–1350. London: 1993.
Cokayne, G. E. Complete Peerage of England, Scotland and
Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, edited by
V. Gibbs, et al. Vol. 2, Eardley of Spalding to Goojerat.
London: St. Catherine’s Press, 1926.
Delaborde, H.-F. “Un Frère de Joinville au Service de l’Angl-
eterre.” (A Brother of Geneville in the Service of England.)
Bibliothèque Nationale De l’Ecole des Chartes 54 (1893):
334–343.
Hand, G. J. English Law in Ireland, 1290–1324. Cambridge:
University of Cambridge Press, 1967.
Hartland, Beth. “Vaucouleurs, Ludlow, and Trim: The Role of
Ireland in the Career of Geoffrey de Geneville (c. 1226–1314).”
Irish Historical Studies 33 (2001): 457–477.
Watson, G. W. “The Families of Lacy, Geneva, Joinville, and
La Marche.” The Genealogist 22 (1905): 1–16.
See also Dublin; FitzGerald; Lacy, de; TrimGERALD, THIRD EARL OF DESMOND
(c. 1338–1398)
Gerald, third earl of Desmond (also known as Gerald
FitzMaurice) was the third son of Maurice FitzThomas,
first earl of Desmond (d. 1356) and Avaline, daughter
of Nicholas FitzMaurice, Lord of Kerry. At the time
of the first earl’s death in 1356, Gerald’s eldest brother
Maurice succeeded to the earldom but died in 1358.
Maurice FitzMaurice’s heir was his brother Nicholas,
who was judged to be of unsound mind. Owing to the
importance of the earls of Desmond for the stability
of southwest Munster at the time, the king waived his
right to the keeping of the lands of the mentally
unsound and, in 1359, granted Gerald the custody of
the earldom (which included lands in Limerick, Kerry,
Waterford, Tipperary, and Cork) as well as the liberty
of Kerry.
Gerald married Eleanor (d. 1392), the daughter of
James Butler, Earl of Ormond (d. 1382). However, this
marriage alliance did not prevent a violent feud from
erupting between the two families during the 1380s
and 1390s, probably as the result of land disputes and
conflicts of interest in Munster. Gerald also came into
conflict with Ua Briain of Thomond. This conflict raged
on and off throughout the 1370s and early 1380s, but
by 1388, Gerald had established a closer relationshipGENEVILLE, GEOFFREY DE (c. 1226–1314)