Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Lord Edward Fitzgerald was born on October 15, 1763 into the highest level of the Irish aristocracy. His father, James Fitzgerald, was the Duke of Leinster, and his mother, Emily, was the daughter of the Duke of Richmond. Lord Edward arrived in Ireland as an infant and was placed in the care of a private tutor, William Ogilvie, who schooled him according to the ultraprogressive educational theories of Jean-Jacques Rousseau . After the death of his father in 1773 his mother took her children and Ogilvie (her lover) to France. Lord Edward embarked upon a military career in 1776, transferring regiments several times in his early years. He fought on the British side in the American Revolutionary War and in 1781 almost died in battle. His life was saved by a recently freed black slave named Tony Small, whom Lord Edward subsequently employed, but treated more as a boon companion than a servant. He and Tony Small spent some time among the Huron Indians, whom he affectionately perceived as representative of Rousseau's “noble savages.” On his return to Ireland in 1783 he was “elected” to the Irish parliament for the borough of Athy in Kildare. (His seat was in fact bought for him by his brother, a common practice at the time.) He aligned himself politically with the Whig Party led by his cousin Charles James Fox, and with a group of Irish patriots, including Richard Brinsley Sheridan ... log in or subscribe to read full text