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Cathyn Fitzgerald is the son of the 11th Earl of Kildare, AEdred, who was a widower at the time of Cathyn's birth, and the Duke of Dublin's only daughter, Khyrien. He and the lady, though in love, were unable to be wed publicly due to some degree of ancient familial animosity, probably over 6 or 8 square feet of land near a stream that marks the boundary between their ancestral holdings that changed course, or some such petty reasoning. They were, however, able to find a sympathetic friar who consented to offer them the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony in secret, so that they could be joined in Heaven, if not on Earth.
The consummation of their marriage led, as these things often do, to the birth of little Cathyn, a hale and hearty infant, who grew rapidly, eating most everything in sight. The lady, being ostensibly unwed at the time of the birth, was shunned by her family, and forced into a convent. Young Cathyn was fostered off as so on as was seemly, coincidentally to the house of the Earl of Kildare, who raised him like the son he in fact was.
On his deathbed, the Earl revealed to Cathyn, now a man of seventeen years, his true parentage, and gave him the name of the friar who had aided him and his beloved. Cathyn (now a titled Lord) tracked down the friar, and obtained from him the documents which proved the falsehood of his perceived bastardy, and also made him the sole legitimate heir to his father's lands and titles.
As Ireland was under the rule of HRM James of England (James VI of Scotland), it fell to Cathyn to make petition to the Crown and its Courts to have the claims of bastardy overturned, and his lands and titles restored. During the arduous process of pressing his case before the English bar, Cathyn developed a strong friendship with the King's son, Charles Stuart. The wheels of justice grind with amazing slowness, yet press through to the truth, and in the end (14 years later), his petition was granted, and (having been recognized as a warrior of great worth in his King's army and rewarded with other lands and greater title) Baron Cathyn Fitzgerald was elevated to the Earldom in the fall of his 31st year by no less than his friend Charles, now King of England.
To this day, however, HE Cathyn still presses his suit before the King's Courts, hoping that those lands and titles rightfully his through his mother will also be restored to him.
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