Other facts

Notes

• The principal recorded events of his career are given in connectionwith the history of Wales in this work, as he took a prominent part inthe Norman invasion of that principality.  Through his wife Nesta,daughter of Rhys ap Tewdwr, Prince of South Wales, who as we have seenwas dramatically abducted by Owain ab Cadwgan, he came into possessionof Carew castle and other properties in South Wales.  He was also formany years the Governor of Pembroke castle, Pembrokeshire, "LittleEngland beyond Wales," where a colony of Flemmings settled and underhis leadership, successfully resisted the onslaughts of the Welsh.The Flemings under Gerald's direction fortified Tenby inPembrokeshire, building walls of great strength and heighth around thetown and also a strong and magnificent castle.  Under his guidancethey also fortified other towns and strongholds in that section ofWales, making Pembrokeshire, in fact, almost impreganble against themilitary genius of the times.     Nesta, the wife of Gerald, was evenmore famous than he.  She was a descendant through her father Rhys apTudor (or Tewdwr), of the long line of kings and princes who had ruledover Britian and Wales for many centries, and was said to have beenthe most beautiful woman of her time, being called the "Helen ofWales."  She was mistress of Henry I., King of England, and her sonsby him were named Fitz Henry.  Henry seems to have put her aside,perhaps for political reasons, for Matilda, the daughter of Malcolm,King of Scottland; and she then married Gerald de Windsor. Anyway thesettlement of affairs between herself and Henry must have been mutallyagreeable, as it is well known that her husband Gerald, was a staunchfriend of the English King for many years after he married Nesta.Gerald and Nesta had three sons, namely:     Maurice Fitz Gerald, Lordof Maynooth and heir to his father's estates. Ancestor of the Dukes ofLeinster, Earls of Kildare and other noble families.     William FitzGerald.  Ancestor of the great noble family of Carew, represented bythe Barons and Knights of Carew; alson of the barons of Gerald, and ofthe Fitz Maurice's.     David Fitz Gerald.  The Bishop of St. David's,who died in 1176.     They also had a daughter:     Angharad, whomarried William de Barri and was the mother of Gerald de Barri(Giaraldus Cambrensis), the noted British historian.     After thedeath of Gerald de Windsor, Nesta married Stephen the Castellan and byhim was mother of Robert Fitz Stephen, who was associated with hisbrother, Maurice Fitz Gerald, in leading the first invasion ofIreland, in the Norman conquest, in 1169.     Nesta was certainly oneof the most noteed women of her time, and she was as we have stated,the Marernal ancestor of a number of  the great families of England,Ireland, and Wales.