Eve de Bermingham, ''
suo jure'' Lady of Offaly (died between June 1223/December 1226), was a
Norman-
Irish heiress, being the only child of Robert de Bermingham who was enfeoffed by
Strongbow with part of the kingdom of ''Ui Failghe''. This fief became the barony of
Offaly which she as the ''suo jure'' heiress, passed on to her first husband,
Gerald FitzMaurice, who by right of his wife was created the 1st Lord of Offaly. She had a total of three husbands.
Marriages and issue
Eve was born on an unknown date, the only daughter and ''suo jure'' heiress of Robert de Bermingham, a Norman, who arrived in Ireland with the
Cambro-Norman forces of Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, known to history as "Strongbow". De Bermingham was enfeoffed by Strongbow with part of the kingdom of ''Ui Failghe'', which became the barony of Offaly. Eve's mother's name and identity is not known.
Sometime about 1183, she married her first husband, Gerald FitzMaurice, the second-eldest son of
Maurice FitzGerald, Lord of Llanstephan
Maurice FitzGerald, Lord of Maynooth, Naas, and Llanstephan (born: almost certainly not at Windsor Castle, more likely Carew in Wales c.1105 – September c.1176 Wexford, Ireland. He was a medieval Anglo-Norman baron and a major figure in the N ...
. He became the 1st Lord of Offaly by right of marriage to her. Together they had one recorded son:
*
Maurice FitzGerald, 2nd Lord of Offaly (1184 – 20 May 1257),
Justiciar of Ireland, married Juliana de Grenville, by whom he had four sons.
Gerald FitzMaurice died on 15 January 1204, and was succeeded by their son and heir, Maurice.
Sometime later, Eve married her second husband, Geoffrey FitzRobert,
Seneschal
The word ''seneschal'' () can have several different meanings, all of which reflect certain types of supervising or administering in a historic context. Most commonly, a seneschal was a senior position filled by a court appointment within a royal, ...
of
Leinster. When he died in 1211, she took a third husband, Geoffrey de Marisco (du Marais), who held the office of Justiciar of Ireland from 1215 to 1221. Her son Maurice would later hold the office from 1232 to 1245. By her third husband, she had at least one son:
* Robert de Marisco, married Christiana de Ridelsford, by whom he had a daughter,
Christiana de Marisco (1234–1312). The latter was the wife of Ebulo of Geneva, and a
lady-in-waiting
A lady-in-waiting or court lady is a female personal assistant at a court, attending on a royal woman or a high-ranking noblewoman. Historically, in Europe, a lady-in-waiting was often a noblewoman but of lower rank than the woman to whom sh ...
in the household of
Eleanor of Provence
Eleanor of Provence (c. 1223 – 24/25 June 1291) was a French noblewoman who became Queen of England as the wife of King Henry III from 1236 until his death in 1272. She served as regent of England during the absence of her spouse in 1253.
...
, Queen consort of King
Henry III of England.
It is not known whether Geoffrey's daughter, Joan du Marais, first wife of
Theobald le Botiller, was Eve's daughter, or his daughter by an earlier, unrecorded marriage.
The female succession in the de Bermingham
fee, as well as Eve's multiple marriages, slowed down the
Anglo-Norman advance in the former kingdom of ''Ui Failghe''.
Death
Eve de Bermingham died in Ireland between June 1223 and December 1226.
[Note:G. E. Cokayne in ''The Complete Peerage'' favours the 1226 date as does Charles Cawley in ''Medieval Lands, Ireland, Earls of Kildare''.]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Offaly, Eve De Bermingham, Lady Of
13th-century deaths
13th-century Irish people
Eve
Year of birth unknown
13th-century Irish women
12th-century Irish women
12th-century Irish people