BURGHElizabeth married Robert Bruce, Earl of Carrick
(later, King Robert I of Scotland), Richard opposed
Edward Bruce’s army when it landed in Ireland in
- 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 loyal-
ties 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 ter-
ritory. 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 daugh-
ter 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 Óg (“Young” or “Junior”) de Burgh, son of
Richard Mór was an antecedent of the Clan Mac William
de Burgh. He was killed by Áed 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 Áed 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 Íochtar 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, sup-
ported Sir Edmund (a son of Richard the Red Earl)
against Edmund Albanach. The latter, however, man-
aged to drown Sir Edmund in Loch Mask in 1338.
From this time, and all through the rest of the medi-
eval 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 sup-
ported one line of the Uí Chonchobhair. Ua Concobhair
Donn was backed by Clanrickard (as well as Ua Con-
chobhair 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 Fhíona”) (d. 1423) was knighted by Richard II in
1395 in Waterford. Moreover, he was appointed one
of the justices of Connacht in 1401.
FREYA VERSTRATEN