Citizen Lord: The Life of Edward Fitzgerald, Irish Revolutionary [Paperback]

Stella Tillyard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1999

From personal letters and other sources, Stella Tillyard has re-created the life of a headstrong young aristocrat who died a martyred rebel for the cause of Irish independence. Lord Edward Fitzgerald joined the British army as a teenager, but radical sentiments soon prevailed over loyalty to the Crown. In North America in 1787, he spent time with the Iroquois; back in Europe, he became a disciple of Thomas Paine and joined the Irish underground. Even his love life was political-from his tragic affair with the wife of Richard Brinsley Sheridan to his marriage to the daughter of a French republican. Lord Edward was plotting for Ireland's independence when, as the bloody rebellion of 1798 raged around him, he was mortally wounded by British soldiers.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The bicentennial of the failed United Irish uprising against Britain, in 1998, is a fitting time for the publication of a biography of Irish revolutionary Lord Edward Fitzgerald. The distinction between Fitzgerald and his co-rebels is his title. While his compatriots were composed primarily of middle-class barristers and solicitors, Fitzgerald was the son of the most aristocratic of Anglo-Irish families, one which, during the Middle Ages, had essentially ruled all of Ireland. His older brother was Duke of Leinster, his mother, the daughter of one of England's great Whig families. Fitzgerald, himself, began his career in a traditional fashion, joining the British army as a career officer and fighting during the American Revolution at the battle that forced Cornwallis's surrender. After his stint in North America, Fitzgerald returned to Europe where he roomed briefly with Thomas Paine in Paris. At a public dinner celebrating the French victory at Jemappes, he offered a toast to the abolition of all titles and vestiges of feudalism--earning him the designation "le citoyen Edouard Fitzgerald." While in Paris, he met his wife--the illegitimate daughter of the duc d'Orleans and his mistress--who, by virtue of her heritage, represented the dual elements that defined his own life. Shortly after returning to Ireland, Fitzgerald joined up with the already burgeoning revolution and rose quickly through the ranks because of his name and military experience. But the revolutionary ranks were rife with informers and double agents, and on the eve of the planned uprising, Fitzgerald was captured and mortally wounded.

Like his previous biographer, Irish Romantic poet Thomas Moore, Stella Tillyard draws liberally from Fitzgerald's correspondence. Through his letters, which she quotes throughout the book, he emerges as a charming, witty, and genuinely affable character. The one failing here is that most of the surviving letters are those he wrote to his mother, so he is somewhat guarded about his politics and related activities, which form the most interesting element of his character. Still, Tillyard does an excellent job of vividly describing the environment in which Fitzgerald moved--evoking a clear sense of her subject and his times. --Jordana Moskowitz --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

This year marks the 200th anniversary of the Irish Rising of 1798, and Tillyard (The Impact of Modernism) brings to life one of its heroes. Lord Edward Fitzgerald, son of the 20th Earl of Kildare, was born in London in 1763. His mother moved the family to a Dublin suburb, where they were raised and educated under the tutelage of William Ogilvie. After the death of Edward's father, his mother married Ogilvie and moved the family to France. Edward took his cadet training in Paris and was commissioned a lieutenant in the British Army during the American Revolution. Wounded at Eutaw Springs, he was saved by Tony Small, a slave who would be his lifelong servant and friend. Returning to Dublin after the war, he vowed to make radical changes to end discrimination aimed at Catholics and dissenters. Tillyard takes a look at Edward's journey to America and the influence of the new republic on him, as well as the galvanizing effects of the French Revolution. Joining the Society of United Irishmen, Edward became a key organizer and was forced to go on the run to avoid arrest. Eventually he was tracked down and killed, and the revolution he meticulously planned failed to materialize. This is an exciting look at a revolutionary icon whose life reads almost like a romance novel. Photos.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux (May 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374525897
• ISBN-13: 978-0374525897
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,288,923 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lord Edward, hero and mama's boy, October 3, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Citizen Lord: The Life of Edward Fitzgerald, Irish Revolutionary (Hardcover)

You'll have to look elsewhere for a full picture of the catastrophic Irish rebellion of 1798, but Ms, Tillyard paints a lovely picture of its most romantic leader. I first heard of Lord Edward as a teenager, dipping into Yeats and reading Lord Edward's name linked to Wolfe Tone and Robert Emmet..."that wild delirium of the brave...". I have read numerous accounts of '98 since, but found little about Lord Edward in them, save for the melodrama of his arrest and death-an extra-judicial murder, if ever there was one.

So I am grateful for Ms. Tillyard's rendering of the man himself. She gives ample proof of the sweetness of his character, showing how his inborn beauty was nurtured and how it blossomed under the doting care of his formidable and unconventional mother. Their tenderness for each other lights what otherwise is a stark and tragic story. More significantly it gives the lie to the masculinist theory that maternal love weakens and "feminizes" male children. True, young Lord Edward had a "strong male role model"-his tutor, who was also his mother's adulterous lover!-but every step of Mr. Ogilvie's tutelege was directed by the attentive and indulgent Duchess of Leinster. The letters between Lord Edward and the Duchess make lovely reading for any mother concerned with the making of boys into men.

Of course, Ms. Tillyard includes the apparently obligatory expressions of horror about "political violence" a phrase used only in reference to Lord Edward's revolutionary enterprise, not to the ongoing repression and dispossession of the native Irish. Taken against the whole of the book, however, this is only a minor stupidity, one so ubiquitous in books about Ireland published since 1969 that Republican readers can pass over it without undue offense.

The main thing is that Lord Edward Fitzgerald lives on these pages as a beloved and loving human being, worthy of all the praise heaped upon him over the centuries. How often does a shining name in history still shine under close inspection?

Anna Bradley

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lyrical History, May 7, 2000

By 

A. Woodley "Patroness, Janeites, the Austen list" (New Zealand) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Citizen Lord: The Life of Edward Fitzgerald, Irish Revolutionary (Hardcover)

In her writing,Stella Tillyard manages to span the difficult gap that separates fiction from non-fiction. Her style is lyrical - almost like a historical fiction - but without the emotive judgement. I find that it makes her books highly evocative and very easy reading.

However that should not lead people to think she has a flare for dubious tabloid presentation. She is quite ruthless in ensuring that her facts are correct, and in 'Citizen Lord' she has stripped away many of the romantic layers that have concealed the true story of Lord Edward Fitzgerald. These were myths that had been spread by Lord Edward's family following his death, and have coloured his story since. The stripping away of these layers makes this book no less interesting, indeed the true story still very much romantic and tragic.

A younger son of the first Duke of Leinster and his wife Emily, a daughter of the Duke of Richmond, Lord Edward was born into privelege and influence. Tillyard traces his gradual move from this life, to one of revolutionary in Ireland of 1798 without descending into either pathos or into judgement.

I was first introduced to Tillyard's writing with her first book, 'Aristocrats' which is also available at Amazon. I would recommend this book as also worth reading, and gives marvellous background to 'Citizen Lord' - it is about his mother, Lady Emily Lennox, and her three sisters.

I think Tillyard is a "Must Read!"