BURGH (Medieval Ireland)

Lords of Connacht

The progenitor of the de Burghs (Burkes, Bourkes, de Burca) in Ireland was William de Burgh, who is often given the epithet "the Conqueror." He is not to be (although he sometimes is) confused with one William fitz Adelm (or Audelin), who filled the offices of seneschal and deputy to Henry II. The origins of the de Burgh family lie in Norfolk. William came to Ireland with the Lord John in 1185 and obtained a grant of land in Munster very soon after. De Burgh erected the castle of Kilfeakle in 1192. He maintained friendly relations with Domnall Mor Ua Briain, whose daughter he married around 1193. The marriage-alliance strengthened his position in Munster substantially and he soon started colonization. John made William a speculative grant of Connacht in 1195. He also held lands from Theobald Walter (ancestor of the Butlers) and was granted more lands by John in 1199 and 1201. By the early thirteenth century he held extensive lands in what are now counties Tipperary and Limerick. The de Burghs also intermarried with other prominent Irish families, such as the Uf Chonchobair and Uf Chellaig, and rapidly Gaelicized.

The Augustinian priory of St. Edmund in Athassel, County Tipperary, was built by William de Burgh in about 1200. The de Burghs later increased its endowments, and several members of the family (Walter son of William [d. 1208]; Richard earl of Ulster [d. 1326]; and probably also Earl William [d. 1280]) were buried in the priory, including the founder.


After receiving the speculative grant from John, de Burgh interfered in Connacht affairs with the help of Ua Briain’s forces. He came to the assistance of Cathal Carrach, grandson of Ruaidrf Ua Conchobair, who was opposing the claim to the kingship of Connacht of his kinsman, Cathal Crobderg son of Tairrdelbach Ua Conchobair. Cathal Carrach was proclaimed king, but de Burgh soon switched sides and in 1201 supported Cathal Crobderg. Their forces combined to kill Cathal Carrach, after which event Crobderg was inaugurated as king. Subsequent to another change of heart on de Burgh’s side, he was summoned before the king of England. De Burgh then had his lands in Limerick and Tipperary re-granted, but lost his claim to Connacht. William died in 1205 and his lands were taken in custody until his heir Richard came of age in 1214. On September 13, 1215, Richard Mor ("the Great," or "Senior") obtained confirmation of the speculative grant his father had received. This grant, however, was not put into effect immediately, as Cathal Crobderg obtained a very similar grant confirming him in the possession of Connacht on the same day. Cathal Crobderg’s son and successor Aed, however, forfeited the grant of Connacht, and so in 1227 Richard’s grant was put into effect. Richard then became lord of Connacht, holding twenty-five of the thirty cantreds of which the province was comprised; his demesne lands were situated in what is now County Galway. The remaining five cantreds came to be known as the "King’s Five Cantreds" and were leased to Ua Conchobair. Richard rebuilt Galway Castle in 1232, and four years later began building what became the center of his power, the castle of Loughrea. He was justiciar of Ireland from 1228 to 1232, and in this office he was nominally and briefly succeeded by his uncle Hubert de Burgh, earl of Kent and justiciar of England from 1215 to 1232. Hubert backed Richard in his efforts to increase his influence and wealth. When Hubert fell out of favor with the king, his nephew Richard was ordered to surrender his own lands. However, after supporting the king in his war against Earl Marshal in Leinster in 1234, he recovered his lands and proceeded with the conquest and subinfeudation of Connacht.

Lords of Connacht and Earls of Ulster

Richard died on an expedition to Poitou in the service of King Henry III in 1243, when his eldest son and heir Richard was not yet of age. The young Richard obtained seisin of his father’s possessions in 1247, but died a year later. Another period of minority followed, and Richard’s lands were given into the custody of Peter de Bermingham until Richard Mor’s second son Walter came of age. In 1261, at the Battle of Callann, de Burgh, the justiciar, and the Fitzgeralds were defeated by MacCarthaig, after which the south of Munster was lost to government control. Meanwhile de Burgh’s center of gravity shifted further to the north. Walter was given the title Earl of Ulster on July 15, 1263, and subsequently held sway over an enormous area. His award of the earldom reflected the feeling of the English government that the Anglo-Irish colony was under threat.

Walter founded the priory of St. Peter for Dominican friars in Lorrha (County Tipperary) in 1269. The de Burghs also built a Franciscan friary in Limerick in the thirteenth century. Walter died in 1271 and was succeeded by his son Richard "the Red Earl," who was still a minor. Richard was the son of Walter and his wife Avelina, daughter of the long-serving justiciar of Ireland John fitz Geoffrey. During Walter’s lifetime, a civil war had broken out between the de Burghs and the Fitzgeralds, from whom the de Burghs had accumulated extensive lands in Connacht (in 1264 Walter de Burgh had seized two Geraldine castles). The Red Earl’s great opponent was John FitzThomas, who was appointed first earl of Kildare in 1316. In 1294, FitzThomas imprisoned Richard, and John burnt the priory of Athassel in 1319. The dispute was, however, substantially resolved by the exchange of Geraldine lands in Connacht for lands elsewhere in Ireland. Richard married a distant relative, Margaret, the great-granddaughter of Hubert de Burgh. On several occasions he managed to depose an Ua Neill king and install his own favorite king of Cenel nEogain, from the newly formed Uf Neill branch called Clandeboye. He played a similar part in Connacht with the Uf Chonchobair.

Richard went on campaigns to Scotland in 1296 and 1303. In spite of the fact that his daughter Elizabeth married Robert Bruce, Earl of Carrick (later, King Robert I of Scotland), Richard opposed Edward Bruce’s army when it landed in Ireland in 1315. He was defeated in the same year in the battle of Connor where his cousin William Liath ("the Grey," d. 1324) was captured by the Scots (he was released a year later). Nevertheless, the earl’s loyalties were questioned and he was apprehended by the citizens of Dublin in 1317. However, when Bruce was defeated, de Burgh was able to recover his territory. Richard was the most powerful nobleman in Ireland in his time. His paternal inheritance was enhanced through his mother Avelina’s rights to estates in Munster. He briefly held the Isle of Man, which he restored to the king in 1290. He was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland twice (1299-1300 and 1308). Around 1300, Richard founded St. Mary’s priory for Carmelite friars in Loughrea (County Galway), built the castle of Bal-lymote (County Sligo), and possibly also started the building of spectacular Dunluce Castle (County Antrim). In 1305, he erected Northburgh castle in County Donegal, and about five years later he rebuilt Sligo castle, originally a Geraldine fortress. In 1326, he retired to Athassel abbey, where he died shortly afterwards.

William de Burgh and Richard de Bermingham won a victory at the Battle of Athenry in 1316, defeating King Feidlim Ua Conchobair, who fell in the battle. Paradoxically, it was after this Anglo-Irish victory that rural English landowners abandoned the area around Roscommon, with the exception of Sir David de Burgh, ancestor of the MacDavids of Clanconway. Until the seventeenth century, members of this branch held lands in the heart of the Ua Conchobair territory.

William "the Brown Earl," son of John de Burgh and Elizabeth de Clare, succeeded his grandfather Richard while still a minor. He was knighted in 1328 by King Edward III and was on that occasion given possession of his estates. Conflicts with the Geraldines and de Mandevilles of Ulster, as well as hostilities within the de Burgh family (see below) finally led to the murder of the earl in 1333. William’s marriage to Maud of Lancaster produced one child, Elizabeth, who was still a baby when her father died. She later married Lionel, Duke of Clarence, a son of Edward III who was chief governor of Ireland from 1361-1364 and 1365-1366. The earldom of Ulster was passed on to the Mortimers through the marriage of their daughter Phillipa to Edmund Mortimer. Their great-grandson Richard, Duke of York, held the earldom in the first half of the fifteenth century, after which it was passed on to his son Edward IV and thus into the hands of the English crown.

Clan MacWilliam Burke and Clanrickard Burke

The de Burgh family split into several branches. Sir William Og ("Young" or "Junior") de Burgh, son of Richard Mor was an antecedent of the Clan Mac William de Burgh. He was killed by Aed son of Feidlim Ua Conchobhair at the Battle of Ath-an-Chip in 1270. William’s son Sir William Liath (d. 1324) was deputy justiciar of Ireland from 1308 to 1309. He founded Galway friary (on St. Stephen’s Island) for Franciscan friars in 1296. William Liath’s sons Walter and Edmund Albanach ("the Scot") were granted the custody of the late earl’s lands in Connacht, Tipperary, and Limerick in 1326. When William "the Brown Earl" succeeded to the earldom he was at enmity with his kinsman Walter, who aspired to the kingship of Connacht. In 1332, Walter was captured and starved to death by William, who supported the descendants of Aed son of Cathal Crobderg in their claim to the kingship of Connacht. Walter’s brother Sir Edmund Albanach (d. 1375) was the ancestor of the MacWilliam Iochtar of Lower (northern) Connacht, who held lands in Mayo. He led a longstanding feud against the Clanrickard Burkes or the MacWilliam Uachtar of Upper (southern) Con-nacht, who held lands in Galway. Richard deBurgh "an Fhorbhair" (d. 1343), the head of the Clanrickard, supported Sir Edmund (a son of Richard the Red Earl) against Edmund Albanach. The latter, however, managed to drown Sir Edmund in Loch Mask in 1338.

From this time, and all through the rest of the medieval period, these two great factions in the de Burghs of Connacht opposed each other. After the division in the Ua Conchobhair dynasty in 1384, at which the main line of the family split into Ua Conchobhair Donn and Ua Conchobhair Ruadh, each branch of the de Burghs supported one line of the Ui Chonchobhair. Ua Concobhair Donn was backed by Clanrickard (as well as Ua Conchobhair Sligigh), while Ua Conchobhair Ruadh was supported first of all by Sir Thomas, son of Sir Edmund Albanach, and later by his descendants.

Thomas and his rival Sir William (or Ulick) of Clan-rickard alternated as official representatives of the Dublin government. When Thomas died in 1402, his branch of the family lost contact with the Dublin Administration, while the Clanrickards continued to provide sheriffs of Connacht from among their family. Until the end of the fifteenth century, the Lower MacWilliams were the stronger of the two factions.

Of the Clanrickard, Sir William de Burgh ("Uilleag an Fhiona") (d. 1423) was knighted by Richard II in 1395 in Waterford. Moreover, he was appointed one of the justices of Connacht in 1401.

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