Rowland FitzEustace, 1st Baron Portlester (c. 1430 – 19 December 1496) was an Irish peer, statesman and judge. He was one of the dominant political figures in late fifteenth-century Ireland, rivalled in influence probably only by his son-in-law Garret FitzGerald, the "Great" Earl of Kildare. Career FitzEustace was the eldest son of Sir Edward FitzEustace of Castlemartin, County Kildare, Lord Deputy of Ireland, and his wife, Alicia. He belonged to one of the most prominent of the "Old English" families of the Pale, which had several branches. He was called to the Bar in England in about 1454, and soon afterwards became Chief Clerk to the Court of King's Bench and the Court of Common Pleas. He was appointed Lord Chancellor of Ireland and Lord Treasurer of Ireland by King Edward IV of England in 1474, and was elevated to the Irish peerage as Baron Portlester in 1462. In the latter year (1462), he was accused of treason, but defended himself with such vigour that the charges were dropped: similar charges made against him in 1470 were not pursued. In 1474, he was a founder member of the Brotherhood of Saint George, a short-lived military order charged with the defence of the Pale (the four counties nearest to Dublin), the only part of Ireland which was under secure English rule. In 1478, when his son-in-law, Gerald FitzGerald, 8th Earl of Kildare, was replaced as Lord Deputy of Ireland by Lord Grey, Portlester organised a campaign of non-co-operation with the new Deputy. Grey ordered him to hand over the Great Seal of Ireland, but Portlester refused point-blank, thus making the conduct of official business impossible. The King went to considerable lengths to support Grey. He ordered Thomas Archbold (alias Galmole), the Master of the Royal Mint in Ireland, to strike a new Great Seal, declaring that the Seal held by Portlester was annulled and that all acts passed under it were utterly void, but these efforts were to no avail. So effective was the campaign of obstruction that after a few months Lord Grey was forced to return to England. Portlester was reappointed Chancellor by Edward IV, and following the change of dynasty in 1485 he was confirmed in office by Henry VII, but later removed because of his part in the crowning of the pretender, Lambert Simnel, as King Edward VI of England, on 24 May 1487. This coronation took