Thomas FitzGerald of Laccagh

Thomas's father, and his eldest brother Gerald, "the Great Earl", reached a position of almost absolute power in Ireland, a state tolerated by successive English Kings.

[4] In 1487 the impostor Lambert Simnel, who claimed to be Edward Plantagenet, 17th Earl of Warwick, the rightful heir of the House of York, appeared in Ireland, in the company of a priest called Richard Symonds, and appealed to the Irish nobility for military aid to gain the English Crown.

Thomas and his brother Gerald, 8th Earl of Kildare, were among Simnel's strongest supporters and were present at his coronation in Christchurch Cathedral, Dublin.

[1] Thomas resigned the Chancellorship and recruited a force of some 4500 soldiers, including both Old Irish and Anglo-Irish, to supplement a troop of Continental mercenaries sent by the real Warwick's aunt, Margaret, Duchess of Burgundy.

By his wife Elizabeth Preston, he had at least three children: In 1572 Sir Maurice FitzGerald of Lackagh took a lease of the lands at Knightstown, County Laois.