Their quarrel was at its height in 1294-5 when FitzThomas captured de Burgh and imprisoned him at Lea Castle for several months "to the disturbance of the whole land".
FitzThomas, though he was indicted at Westminster for a number of very serious offences, obtained a royal pardon for all of them except those against de Burgh, to whom he was forced to surrender his lands in Connacht.
[3] In 1307, with his son-in-law Sir Edmund Butler, he dispersed rebels in Offaly[3] who had razed the castle of Geashill and burnt the town of Leix.
Lord Offaly, among others, commenced vigorous sporadic warfare to resist Bruce, leaving "great slaughter" of Scots and the Irish irregulars in his service.
King Edward II created Fitzgerald Earl of Kildare by Letters Patent dated 14 May 1316,[3] the year in which he founded the Augustinian priory at Adare, County Limerick.