George FitzGerald, 16th Earl of Kildare (23 January 1612 – 29 May 1660) was known as the "Fairy Earl", apparently for no other reason than that his portrait, which is extant, was painted on a small scale."
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Biography
FitzGerald was the son of Thomas FitzGerald (died 1619) and Frances (1576–1618), daughter of Thomas Randolph, and great grandson of Gerald FitzGerald, 9th Earl of Kildare.
George Fitzgerald was in his ninth year when, in 1620, he inherited the Kildare peerage, on the death of Gerald FitzGerald, 15th Earl of Kildare, at the age of eight years and ten months. Earl George was given in wardship by the king to Ludovic Stewart, 2nd Duke of Lennox. On the decease of the latter, his widow transferred the wardship of the minor and his estates to Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork, for £6,600.
Kildare studied for a time at Christ Church, Oxford, and in his eighteenth year married Joan, fourth daughter of Lord Cork. He appears to have been much under the influence of that astute adventurer; but occasional differences occurred between them, for the settlement of which the intervention of the lord deputy, Wentworth, was obtained.
A portrait of Kildare, painted in 1632, in which he is represented as of diminutive stature, is extant at Carton, the residence of the Duke of Leinster. There is also preserved at Carton a transcript, made in 1633 for Kildare, of an ancient volume known as the "Red Book of the Earls of Kildare". Kildare sat for the first time in the Irish House of Lords, in 1634, and was appointed colonel of a foot regiment in the English army in Ireland.