The first White Knight was Maurice FitzGibbon. He was knighted in the field by
Edward III in 1333, immediately after the defeat of Scottish forces at the
Battle of Halidon Hill. Maurice FitzGibbon, 1st White Knight was the son of Gilbert Fitz John, eldest illegitimate son of
John FitzGerald, 1st Baron Desmond and Honora, daughter of Hugh O'Connor Don aka
Ó Conchubhair Donn of
Kerry,
King of Connacht aka
Felim Ua Conchobair. John FitzGerald was also the ancestor of the
Earls of Desmond. The family of the White Knight was esteemed as the second branch of the House of
FitzGerald, of which the
Earl of Desmond was the head. The following passage discusses a traditional, folk origin of the House of FitzGerald: "The Fitz Geralds of Ireland, men of approued [sic] valour, were without question / descended from the auncient Trojans, when, that famous citty of Pergamus / beeing vtterly layd waste after ten yeares seidge, all her Princes slayne / in battailes, Prince Aeneas only surviueing; who beeing the close concealement / of Poliscena, Priam’s most beautiful daughter, was banished by the / Greekes, and followed by a gallant and warlike crewe of martiall youths, / who surviued theyre natiue countryes destruction. The Auncestors of Fitz Geralds / were of them who followed him in his exile." From a fragment of
Irish poetry attributed to the Irish poet Donogh McCraith, translated into English: "Three renowned knights of Gerald’s powerfull [sic] race / In Ireland (well ’twas known), being stoutest had the place; / To distinguish each of these Gallants progenye, / By right of birth and worth, the White Knight bore the sway". The title of the White Knight, in the original Irish, can be anglicized as: "Ryther-a-fin". The White Knight possessed large estates in the counties of Limerick and Cork. Though it was common in the historical context of early medieval Ireland for one possessing Knight's Fees to take his name from the lands that he held by military service, the White Knight was not called after his land, but is supposed to have taken his distinct appellation from the colour of his armour. Maurice Fitzgibbon, 1st White Knight, led military expeditions alongside the
Earl of Desmond in Scotland and Wales, serving as Lieutenant-General to the
Earl of Desmond. The White Knights were constantly at war with the Lords Roche, their near neighbours. Whenever the followers or retainers of the two families met, except in alliance against a common foe, "there was sure to be a bloody encounter between them." One such encounter, between
Edmund Fitzgibbon, 11th White Knight, and a bastard son of David Roche, Viscount Roche and Fermoy, is recorded. Roche, attempting to intimidate FitzGibbon into relinquishing claims on the lands of Old Castletown in
county Cork, led an incursion into the lands of FitzGibbon, "where he began to plunder all before him". As Roche proceeded back toward his own lands, he was intercepted by FitzGibbon. Their encounter is recorded in the following passage: "At last the Whyte Knight [sic] and Roche fell hand to hand on horseback and fought together, till both theyre staves or horse mobpykes were broaken to shivers. Then they both alighted and fought with theyre swords a good while with equal fortune. At last Roche received a stroake on the knee (for he was armed upwards and ye Whyte Knight had noe armor on him), and Roches men being killed or fledd, one of the Whyte Knight's souldiers came and shott him in ye face with a pocket pistol loaden with small shott, whereupon he fled, and (as it is sayd) would have gone neere to have escaped had it not bin for his bootes, when one Gibbon Roe followed him, being on horseback, and rann him through under the arme pitt, and soe made an end of Stout Roche." ==Holders of the title==