Irish aristocrat, nationalist
army officer and revolutionary.
Son of: James FitzGerald, 1st Duke of Leinster & Lady Emily Lennox, daughter of Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond.
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| Pamela Sims @Vigee Le Brun |
Husband of: Pamela Sims, mar 1792
Former mistress
Lord Edward's personal & family background.
"Lord Edward Fitzgerald was the fifth son of the twentieth Earl of Kildare and first Duke of Leinster. He was a direct lineal descendant of Garret Og Fitzgerald, the last native ruler of Ireland, and, as commander-in-chief of the United Irishmen, in 1798, became an early victim of the treachery of his friends. . . ." (A Grave in Kilmurry)
Born to the Premier Peers of Ireland.
"Lord Edward was born to a great dynastic heritage. The Kildares were the 'premier peers' of Ireland -- the family who had been, by a combination of opportunism and canny marriages, the first recognised members of an aristocracy formed and given legitimacy by the English monarch. Originally banditti from Florence, they were said to have served successively Norman, English and Irish kings, before fighting for Edward III and being given, as a reward, the earldom of Kildare. Settling in Ireland, the Fitzgeralds acquired huge tracts of the country's fertile central flatlands and, over the next four centuries, successfully oscillated between pragmatic gestures of loyalty to the English Crown and spectacular acts of defiance that allowed them to claim a distinct Irish identity. They became Protestants at the Reformation and supported William of Orange against Stuart claims to the English Crown. But despite their accumulating land and wealth, they maintained their links with Ireland's other old families and never deserted Dublin and the Irish parliament for more lucrative and heady pursuits in London and Westminster." (Citizen Lord: The Life of Edward Fitzgerald, Irish Revolutionary)
Royal connections of Lord FitzGerald's parents.
"When he married Lady Emily Lennox in 1747, Kildare had had ambitions to shine in Westminster as well as Dublin. Besides being a beauty and a minor heiress, Emily was a means to the ear of the monarch George II and to the gates of Westminster. Her parents, the second Duke and Duchess of Richmond, were prominent courtiers: the Duchess was Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Caroline, the Duke Master of the Horse and a member of the cabinet. Equally important, her elder sister Caroline was married to one of the fastest-rising stars of the House of Commons, Henry Fox. To underline Kildare's political ambitions, his new father-in-law procured for him a British peerage which carried a seat in the House of Lords. A few days before his marriage, Kildare was created Viscount Leinster of Taplow and given the promise of a dukedom which was fulfilled in 1766 when he became Duke of Leinster." (Citizen Lord: The Life of Edward Fitzgerald, Irish Revolutionary)
Physical appearance & personal qualities.
Born to the Premier Peers of Ireland.
"Lord Edward was born to a great dynastic heritage. The Kildares were the 'premier peers' of Ireland -- the family who had been, by a combination of opportunism and canny marriages, the first recognised members of an aristocracy formed and given legitimacy by the English monarch. Originally banditti from Florence, they were said to have served successively Norman, English and Irish kings, before fighting for Edward III and being given, as a reward, the earldom of Kildare. Settling in Ireland, the Fitzgeralds acquired huge tracts of the country's fertile central flatlands and, over the next four centuries, successfully oscillated between pragmatic gestures of loyalty to the English Crown and spectacular acts of defiance that allowed them to claim a distinct Irish identity. They became Protestants at the Reformation and supported William of Orange against Stuart claims to the English Crown. But despite their accumulating land and wealth, they maintained their links with Ireland's other old families and never deserted Dublin and the Irish parliament for more lucrative and heady pursuits in London and Westminster." (Citizen Lord: The Life of Edward Fitzgerald, Irish Revolutionary)
Royal connections of Lord FitzGerald's parents.
"When he married Lady Emily Lennox in 1747, Kildare had had ambitions to shine in Westminster as well as Dublin. Besides being a beauty and a minor heiress, Emily was a means to the ear of the monarch George II and to the gates of Westminster. Her parents, the second Duke and Duchess of Richmond, were prominent courtiers: the Duchess was Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Caroline, the Duke Master of the Horse and a member of the cabinet. Equally important, her elder sister Caroline was married to one of the fastest-rising stars of the House of Commons, Henry Fox. To underline Kildare's political ambitions, his new father-in-law procured for him a British peerage which carried a seat in the House of Lords. A few days before his marriage, Kildare was created Viscount Leinster of Taplow and given the promise of a dukedom which was fulfilled in 1766 when he became Duke of Leinster." (Citizen Lord: The Life of Edward Fitzgerald, Irish Revolutionary)
Physical appearance & personal qualities.
"Lord Edward was a famously charismatic figure. Thomas Moore in breathless prose recalled the effect of seeing him once striding down Grafton Street: 'Though I saw him but once, his peculiar dress, the elastic lightness of his step, his fresh, healthful complexion and the soft expression given to his face by their long dark eyelashes are as present and familiar to my memory as if I had intimately known him.'" (History Ireland)
Character or persona.
". . . He had a terrific sense of humour. . . He was chatty, witty, charming, a chess player, a fine dancer, handsome, sensual, endlessly fond of women and relaxed in their company at balls and operas. He was also active and energetic---hunting, fishing, fond of the outdoor life. He took to the Canadian winter---skating, snow-shoeing, tobogganing, canoeing. He was also an accomplished linguist. . . . " (History Ireland)
Lord Edward at 29 years old.
" . . . Lord Edward was now twenty-nine, and is described as being 'five feet seven inches in height, a very fine, elegantly formed man, with an interesting countenance, beautiful arched eyebrows, fine grey eyes, handsome nose and high forehead, thick dark-colored hair, brown or inclining to black; as playful and humble as a child, as mild and timid as a lady, and, when necessary, as brave as a lion. . . ." (Temple Bar: 192)
"Lord Edward was a famously charismatic figure. Thomas Moore in breathless prose recalled the effect of seeing him once striding down Grafton Street: 'Though I saw him but this once, his peculiar dress, the elastic lightness of his step, his fresh, healthful complexion and the soft expression given to his face by their long dark eyelashes are as present and familiar to my memory as if I had intimately known him.'" (History Ireland)
". . . He had a terrific sense of humour. . . He was chatty, witty, charming, a chess player, a fine dancer, handsome, sensual, endlessly fond of women and relaxed in their company at balls and operas. He was also active and energetic---hunting, fishing, fond of the outdoor life. He took to the Canadian winter---skating, snow-shoeing, tobogganing, canoeing. He was also an accomplished linguist. . . . " (History Ireland)
Lord Edward at 29 years old.
" . . . Lord Edward was now twenty-nine, and is described as being 'five feet seven inches in height, a very fine, elegantly formed man, with an interesting countenance, beautiful arched eyebrows, fine grey eyes, handsome nose and high forehead, thick dark-colored hair, brown or inclining to black; as playful and humble as a child, as mild and timid as a lady, and, when necessary, as brave as a lion. . . ." (Temple Bar: 192)
"Lord Edward was a famously charismatic figure. Thomas Moore in breathless prose recalled the effect of seeing him once striding down Grafton Street: 'Though I saw him but this once, his peculiar dress, the elastic lightness of his step, his fresh, healthful complexion and the soft expression given to his face by their long dark eyelashes are as present and familiar to my memory as if I had intimately known him.'" (History Ireland)
Lord Edward the serial lover.
". . . Edward was a serial lover and his life oscillated constantly between profoundly felt attachments and bitter separations---Catherine Meade in 1786, his cousin Georgiana in 1788, Elizabeth Linley, wife of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, in 1791, with whom he had a love-child, and eventually his future wife Pamela in 1792---married after a whirlwind romance. The recoil from these entanglements often sent him on distant adventures---to Canada after Georgiana, to Paris after Elizabeth. And Edward also maintained a long running and affectionate relationship with his French mistress Madame de Levis---an adventuresome grass widow." (History Ireland)
". . . Edward was a serial lover and his life oscillated constantly between profoundly felt attachments and bitter separations---Catherine Meade in 1786, his cousin Georgiana in 1788, Elizabeth Linley, wife of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, in 1791, with whom he had a love-child, and eventually his future wife Pamela in 1792---married after a whirlwind romance. The recoil from these entanglements often sent him on distant adventures---to Canada after Georgiana, to Paris after Elizabeth. And Edward also maintained a long running and affectionate relationship with his French mistress Madame de Levis---an adventuresome grass widow." (History Ireland)
". . . Back in Europe, he had several love affairs, a few mistresses and some casual conquests, gambled and visited the great houses of friends." (NYT)
A dangerous facility for falling in love.
Among his many peculiarities was dangerous facility for falling in love. He had already had two grades passions: first for Lady Catherine Meade (whom he always called 'pretty Kate'), second daughter of Lord Clanwilliam, and afterwards for a certain G___. . . But G____ proved faithless and married some one else just as he was returning from the silver mines of America, full of joy aqt the thought of seeing her again. . . ." (Temple Bar: 193)
A dangerous facility for falling in love.
Among his many peculiarities was dangerous facility for falling in love. He had already had two grades passions: first for Lady Catherine Meade (whom he always called 'pretty Kate'), second daughter of Lord Clanwilliam, and afterwards for a certain G___. . . But G____ proved faithless and married some one else just as he was returning from the silver mines of America, full of joy aqt the thought of seeing her again. . . ." (Temple Bar: 193)
Intense male friendships.
"He was equally quick to form intense male friendships. The African-American Tony Small rescued him from the muddy battle site at Eutaw Springs in 1782. Edward never parted from him for the rest of his life. He struck up intense friendships with the celebrated Indian leader Joseph Brant when he met him in 1789, the equally famous Thomas Paine in Paris in 1792, and his ‘twin-soul’, Arthur O’Connor in Dublin in 1796." (History Ireland)
"He was equally quick to form intense male friendships. The African-American Tony Small rescued him from the muddy battle site at Eutaw Springs in 1782. Edward never parted from him for the rest of his life. He struck up intense friendships with the celebrated Indian leader Joseph Brant when he met him in 1789, the equally famous Thomas Paine in Paris in 1792, and his ‘twin-soul’, Arthur O’Connor in Dublin in 1796." (History Ireland)
His lovers were:
1) Catherine Meade.
Lover in 1786.
Daughter of: John Meade, 1st Earl of Clanwilliam and Theodosia Hawkins Magill
Wife of: Richard Wingfield, 4th Viscount Powerscourt.
"The tedium of existence at home had left but one thing to be done. It was an expedient for which Lord Edward's nature fortunately offered special facilities. He had accordingly resorted to it without loss of time. He fell in love. The heroine of this preliminary romance was Lady Catherine Meade, daughter of Lord Clanwilliam, and afterwards married to Lord Powerscourt. Of Lady Catherine herself little is known, and that little chiefly from the letters of her lover, written at a time . . . in the beginning of the year 1786. . . ." (Taylor: 53)
"Dublin at this period was a gay capital (not a dowdy dowager among cities), and Lord Edward, while mixing in society there, met, and fell in love with, Lady Catherine Meade, a daughter of Lord Clanwilliam. Before this affair of the heart had advanced too far, his cautious stepfather, to get him out of temptation's way, hurried him off to England, and persuaded him, as Parliament was then up, to go through a course of gunnery instructions at Woolwich. Lord Edward consented to the plan; yet that, in the midst of his studies, his heart remained in Ireland, is pretty clear from the tone of his letters to the Duchess. 'I am as busy as ever,' he writes in midsummer 1786: 'it is the only resource I have, for I have no pleasure in anything. I need not say I hope you are kind to pretty dear Kate; I am sure you are. I want you to like her almost as much as I do;--- it is a feeling I always have with people I love excessively." (Temple Bar: A London Magazine for Town and Country Readers, Volume 61: 20)
" . . . Of Lady Catherine herself little is known, and that little chiefly from the letters of her lover, written at a time when, in the beginning of the year 1786, three years after his return to Ireland, he was parted from his mother, having placed himself at Woolwich with a determination there to pursue a regular course of study. A military career was that to which he still looked forward, and it is plain that he regarded his Parliamentary duties in the light of a more or less irrelevant interlude. . . ." (The Life of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, 1763-1798: 53)
2) Elizabeth Linley (1754-1792)
Lover in 1791.
"Dublin at this period was a gay capital (not a dowdy dowager among cities), and Lord Edward, while mixing in society there, met, and fell in love with, Lady Catherine Meade, a daughter of Lord Clanwilliam. Before this affair of the heart had advanced too far, his cautious stepfather, to get him out of temptation's way, hurried him off to England, and persuaded him, as Parliament was then up, to go through a course of gunnery instructions at Woolwich. Lord Edward consented to the plan; yet that, in the midst of his studies, his heart remained in Ireland, is pretty clear from the tone of his letters to the Duchess. 'I am as busy as ever,' he writes in midsummer 1786: 'it is the only resource I have, for I have no pleasure in anything. I need not say I hope you are kind to pretty dear Kate; I am sure you are. I want you to like her almost as much as I do;--- it is a feeling I always have with people I love excessively." (Temple Bar: A London Magazine for Town and Country Readers, Volume 61: 20)
" . . . Of Lady Catherine herself little is known, and that little chiefly from the letters of her lover, written at a time when, in the beginning of the year 1786, three years after his return to Ireland, he was parted from his mother, having placed himself at Woolwich with a determination there to pursue a regular course of study. A military career was that to which he still looked forward, and it is plain that he regarded his Parliamentary duties in the light of a more or less irrelevant interlude. . . ." (The Life of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, 1763-1798: 53)
2) Elizabeth Linley (1754-1792)
Lover in 1791.
Daughter of: Thomas Linley, a composer & Mary Johnson.
Wife of: Richard Brinsley Sheridan, a playwright, manager, patentee, poet, & politician, mar 1772.
Marriage to Richard Sheridan.
"In March 1772 Sheridan eloped with the beautiful young singer Elizabeth Linley. They went first to London, then to France. By arrangement of her father, Elizabeth had been betrothed in 1770 to the elderly and wealthy Walter Long. That betrothal was broken off, and Thomas Linley received a large financial settlement. But the affair provoked considerable controversy in the press and resulted in Foote's farcical and transparent treatment of the events, The Maid of Bath, which had its first performance at the Haymarket Theatre in London on 26 June 1771. . . Elizabeth and Richard were married by a priest in a village near Calais at the end of March 1772. . . On 6 April 1773 he entered the Middle Temple, and on the thirteenth of that month he married Elizabeth Linley at Marylebone Church. . . ." (A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians ..., Vol 13: 307)
Affair's effect on her husband.
"Elizabeth became pregnant and was delivered of a daughter, the child of Lord Edward. The difficult pregnancy and labour were to rob her of her final vestiges of health and she was to succumb shortly afterwards to the tuberculosis that had plagued her since her marriage. It is to the credit of Sheridan that, in full knowledge of the pregnancy’s circumstances, he cared for his wife tenderly and showered her with love and attention in her final months, refusing to reproach her in any way and in fact, seeming only to blame himself." (Madame Guillotine)
Child with Lord Edward Fitzgerald.
"Elizabeth Linley Sheridan was several times pregnant by our subject, Richard Brinsley Sheridan. On 6 May 1777 she delivered a stillborn child. At the age of 37 she had a daughter, Mary Sheridan, born on 30 March 1792 at Cromwell House, Brompton, probably the child of Lord Edward Fitzgerald. Elizabeth seems to have engaged in an affair with Fitzgerald in retaliation for Sheridan's years of philandering. Mary's birth sapped Elizabeth's strength and contributed to her death in 1792. Sheridan suffered genuine grief at the loss of his wife, and then was doubly stricken by the death of the infant Mary in October of her first year. Soon afterward Sheridan fell in love with Pamela, the nineteen-year-old daughter of Mme de Sillery by Philippe Egalite, but in December 1792 Pamela married Lord Edward Fitzgerald, Elizabeth Linley's former lover." (A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians ..., Vol 13: 317)
The most beautiful flower that ever grew in Nature's garden.
" . . . Elizabeth's talent and beauty, praised by many, made her one of the most desirable young women in Bath. John Wilkes described her as 'the most beautiful flower that ever grew in Nature's garden'. She became a magnet to the high-spirited gentlemen of the town, who were attracted by her wit and charm as well as her beauty. Thomas More wrote that she spread 'her gentle conquests, to an extent almost unparalleled in the annals of beauty. Her personal charm, the exquisiteness of her musical talents, and the full light of publicity which her profession threw upon both, naturally attracted round her a crowd of admirers, in whom the sympathy of a common pursuit soon kindled into rivalry, till she came at length the object of vanity as well as of love. Her extreme youth, too, must be removed, even from minds the most fastidious and delicate, that repugnance they might justly have felt for her profession.'" (A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians ..., Vol 13: 328)
3) Lady Georgina Lennox (1765-1846).
Lover in 1788.
Marriage to Richard Sheridan.
"In March 1772 Sheridan eloped with the beautiful young singer Elizabeth Linley. They went first to London, then to France. By arrangement of her father, Elizabeth had been betrothed in 1770 to the elderly and wealthy Walter Long. That betrothal was broken off, and Thomas Linley received a large financial settlement. But the affair provoked considerable controversy in the press and resulted in Foote's farcical and transparent treatment of the events, The Maid of Bath, which had its first performance at the Haymarket Theatre in London on 26 June 1771. . . Elizabeth and Richard were married by a priest in a village near Calais at the end of March 1772. . . On 6 April 1773 he entered the Middle Temple, and on the thirteenth of that month he married Elizabeth Linley at Marylebone Church. . . ." (A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians ..., Vol 13: 307)
Affair's effect on her husband.
"Elizabeth became pregnant and was delivered of a daughter, the child of Lord Edward. The difficult pregnancy and labour were to rob her of her final vestiges of health and she was to succumb shortly afterwards to the tuberculosis that had plagued her since her marriage. It is to the credit of Sheridan that, in full knowledge of the pregnancy’s circumstances, he cared for his wife tenderly and showered her with love and attention in her final months, refusing to reproach her in any way and in fact, seeming only to blame himself." (Madame Guillotine)
Child with Lord Edward Fitzgerald.
"Elizabeth Linley Sheridan was several times pregnant by our subject, Richard Brinsley Sheridan. On 6 May 1777 she delivered a stillborn child. At the age of 37 she had a daughter, Mary Sheridan, born on 30 March 1792 at Cromwell House, Brompton, probably the child of Lord Edward Fitzgerald. Elizabeth seems to have engaged in an affair with Fitzgerald in retaliation for Sheridan's years of philandering. Mary's birth sapped Elizabeth's strength and contributed to her death in 1792. Sheridan suffered genuine grief at the loss of his wife, and then was doubly stricken by the death of the infant Mary in October of her first year. Soon afterward Sheridan fell in love with Pamela, the nineteen-year-old daughter of Mme de Sillery by Philippe Egalite, but in December 1792 Pamela married Lord Edward Fitzgerald, Elizabeth Linley's former lover." (A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians ..., Vol 13: 317)
The most beautiful flower that ever grew in Nature's garden.
" . . . Elizabeth's talent and beauty, praised by many, made her one of the most desirable young women in Bath. John Wilkes described her as 'the most beautiful flower that ever grew in Nature's garden'. She became a magnet to the high-spirited gentlemen of the town, who were attracted by her wit and charm as well as her beauty. Thomas More wrote that she spread 'her gentle conquests, to an extent almost unparalleled in the annals of beauty. Her personal charm, the exquisiteness of her musical talents, and the full light of publicity which her profession threw upon both, naturally attracted round her a crowd of admirers, in whom the sympathy of a common pursuit soon kindled into rivalry, till she came at length the object of vanity as well as of love. Her extreme youth, too, must be removed, even from minds the most fastidious and delicate, that repugnance they might justly have felt for her profession.'" (A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians ..., Vol 13: 328)
3) Lady Georgina Lennox (1765-1846).
Lover in 1788.
"That the possibility of infidelity had begun to make itself felt was apparent, not only in his protestations of changelessness, but also in the credit he took to himself for the fact that, though he had been staying at Stoke, the house of his uncle Lord George Lennox, and had there enjoyed opportunities of intercourse with Lord George's three daughters, he still remained faithful. 'Though I have been there since the Duke went,' he writes, not without some pride, 'I am as constant as ever, and go on doting upon her; this is, I think, the greatest proof I have given yet. Being here has put me in much better spirits, they are so delightful.' And most delightful of all was Georgina Lennox, the youngest of the sisters, then about twenty-one. Giving a description of this niece some six years earlier, Lady Sarah Napier had mentioned that she was considered to be very like herself, which would seem to imply that she was gifted with her full share of the family beauty; and with the wit, the power of satire, and the good-nature with which she was said, even at fifteen, to be endowed, she must have been a dangerous rival to the absent Lady Catherine. A fortnight later than the last letter quoted another was written, which contained a clear foreshadowing of the end, though still accompanied by the protestation of unalterable attachment." (The Life of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, 1763-1798: 62)
4) Madame de Levis.
5) Pamela Sims
Lover in 1792.
4) Madame de Levis.
5) Pamela Sims
Lover in 1792.
Future wife.
Daughter of: Guillaume de Brixey & Mary Sims
a native of Fogo Island, Newfoundland
Pamela's personal & family background.
"Shortly after, he made a marriage at once ducal and revolutionary. Pamela Sims, as her parents wished her to be called, was the child of the duc d'Orleans, a cousin to Louis XVI and in the line of royal succession, and Mme. de Genlis, his mistress and a memoirist beneath whose pen truth became as malleable as clay. At the revolution, the duke flung aside his rank, became Philippe Egalite and earned the detestation of respectable Europe by voting in the Convention for the death of the King. A year later, he was himself guillotined." (Citizen Lord: The Life of Edward Fitzgerald, Irish Revolutionary)
" . . . To that resemblance is also attributed her conquest of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, who, objecting to 'blue stockings,' had refused to meet the Genlis party in England, but saw Pamela at a Paris theatre, was immediately introduced to her, was invited to dinner the next day, joined the party on the road, on their expulsion from Paris as emigres, accompanied them to Tournai, and there married her, 27 Dec. 1792. . . " (Wikisource)
First encounter.
" . . . At one of the Paris theatres, Moore tells us, he saw a face, though a loge grillee near him, which struck him at once, not only from its own peculiar beauty, but also from its strange likeness to a lady some months dead. We have no difficulty in guessing this lady to have been Mrs. Sheridan. Lord Edward found that she was no other than that very Pamela of whom he had heard so much, and whom he had resolutely refused to meet. Away went all his prejudices against learned ladies; he was introduced by an Englishman, Mr. Stone, and was never absent from Pamela's side. . . ." (Temple Bar: 193)
Lord Edward & Pamela's wedding.
" . . . His courtship now was very short; the first meeting took place the end of November, and during the first days of December the party migrated to Tournay. Three weeks afterwards Lord Edward's marriage with Pamela too place, the contract being witnessed, among others, by Philippe Egalite. Pamela appears as 'Citoyenne Anne Caroline Stephanie Sims, Connie en France sous la nomme de Pamela, native de Fogo dans l'ile de Terreneuve, fille de Guillaume de Brixey et de Mary Sims.' Here is a new paternity due to Madame la gouvernante's inventive faculty, but in the Irish papers of that date, among the marriage announcements, we find, 'The Right Hon. Lord Edward Fitzgerald to Madame Pamela Capet, daughter of his Royal Highness the ci-devant Duke of Orleans.'. . . ." (Temple Bar: 194)
"Pamela Sims was the young ward of renowned educationalist and dramatist Madame de Genlis - probably her daughter by the Duke of Orleans (Philippe Egalité, who voted for the execution of his kinsman Louis XVI and was himself executed under the Terror). Pamela had previously, when on a visit to England, been briefly engaged to the widowed Brinsley Sheridan. (His wife Elizabeth had died shortly after giving birth to Lord Edward's daughter, Mary.) In Paris in December 1792, she married Lord Edward Fitzgerald who was to become the United Irish Army's Commander-in-Chief before the Rising. She shared her husband's radical views and took an active part in the revolutionary work of the United Irish Movement." (Remembering the Past: The women of `98)
Pamela's personal & family background.
"Shortly after, he made a marriage at once ducal and revolutionary. Pamela Sims, as her parents wished her to be called, was the child of the duc d'Orleans, a cousin to Louis XVI and in the line of royal succession, and Mme. de Genlis, his mistress and a memoirist beneath whose pen truth became as malleable as clay. At the revolution, the duke flung aside his rank, became Philippe Egalite and earned the detestation of respectable Europe by voting in the Convention for the death of the King. A year later, he was himself guillotined." (Citizen Lord: The Life of Edward Fitzgerald, Irish Revolutionary)
" . . . To that resemblance is also attributed her conquest of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, who, objecting to 'blue stockings,' had refused to meet the Genlis party in England, but saw Pamela at a Paris theatre, was immediately introduced to her, was invited to dinner the next day, joined the party on the road, on their expulsion from Paris as emigres, accompanied them to Tournai, and there married her, 27 Dec. 1792. . . " (Wikisource)
First encounter.
" . . . At one of the Paris theatres, Moore tells us, he saw a face, though a loge grillee near him, which struck him at once, not only from its own peculiar beauty, but also from its strange likeness to a lady some months dead. We have no difficulty in guessing this lady to have been Mrs. Sheridan. Lord Edward found that she was no other than that very Pamela of whom he had heard so much, and whom he had resolutely refused to meet. Away went all his prejudices against learned ladies; he was introduced by an Englishman, Mr. Stone, and was never absent from Pamela's side. . . ." (Temple Bar: 193)
Lord Edward & Pamela's wedding.
" . . . His courtship now was very short; the first meeting took place the end of November, and during the first days of December the party migrated to Tournay. Three weeks afterwards Lord Edward's marriage with Pamela too place, the contract being witnessed, among others, by Philippe Egalite. Pamela appears as 'Citoyenne Anne Caroline Stephanie Sims, Connie en France sous la nomme de Pamela, native de Fogo dans l'ile de Terreneuve, fille de Guillaume de Brixey et de Mary Sims.' Here is a new paternity due to Madame la gouvernante's inventive faculty, but in the Irish papers of that date, among the marriage announcements, we find, 'The Right Hon. Lord Edward Fitzgerald to Madame Pamela Capet, daughter of his Royal Highness the ci-devant Duke of Orleans.'. . . ." (Temple Bar: 194)
"Pamela Sims was the young ward of renowned educationalist and dramatist Madame de Genlis - probably her daughter by the Duke of Orleans (Philippe Egalité, who voted for the execution of his kinsman Louis XVI and was himself executed under the Terror). Pamela had previously, when on a visit to England, been briefly engaged to the widowed Brinsley Sheridan. (His wife Elizabeth had died shortly after giving birth to Lord Edward's daughter, Mary.) In Paris in December 1792, she married Lord Edward Fitzgerald who was to become the United Irish Army's Commander-in-Chief before the Rising. She shared her husband's radical views and took an active part in the revolutionary work of the United Irish Movement." (Remembering the Past: The women of `98)
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