William fitz Roger

William fitz Roger (died after 1295) was an Anglo-Norman cleric, judge and Crown official in late thirteenth-century Lordship of Ireland.

He led several military expeditions (the Hospitallers were an order of fighting monks), but was a notoriously incompetent commander, whose campaigns invariably ended in failure.

[3] As the head of a great military order, fitz Roger was expected to lead troops in battle, and soon after his appointment he led an expedition against the O'Byrne clan of County Wicklow, who periodically raided Dublin.

[2] His actions brought on him the wrath of the formidable King Edward I of England, who ordered him to return at once to Ireland and resume his duties, and in particular the defence of Dublin.

[4] The Prior, faced with this dilemma, evidently felt that the present anger of the King was more to be feared than the displeasure of the Grand Master in faraway Rhodes, and duly returned.