William Donn de Burgh, 3rd Earl of Ulster

William de Burgh, 3rd Earl of Ulster and 4th Baron of Connaught (17 September 1312 – 6 June 1333) was an aristocrat in the Peerage of Ireland. His murder at age 20 led to the Burke Civil War.

Background

The grandson of the 2nd Earl Richard Óg de Burgh via his second son, John, William de Burgh was also Lord of Connaught in Ireland, and held the manor of Clare, Suffolk.

He was summoned to Parliament from 10 December 1327 to 15 June 1328 by writs addressed to Willelmo de Burgh. In 1331 he was appointed Lieutenant of Ireland for a year. ^[1]

Marriage and issue

The 3rd Earl of Ulster married, before 16 November 1327 (by a Papal Dispensation dated 1 May 1327), Maud of Lancaster, daughter of Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster and Maud Chaworth. They had only one surviving child, Elizabeth, Countess of Ulster, who was 13 months old when he was murdered. She married Lionel of Antwerp, third son of Edward III of England.

Murder

In November 1332, at Greencastle, near the mouth of Lough Foyle, he had his cousin Sir Walter Liath de Burgh starved to death. In revenge, Sir Walter's sister, Gylle de Burgh, wife of Sir Richard de Mandeville, planned his assassination.

In June 1333, he was killed by de Mandeville, Sir John de Logan, and others. The Annals of the Four Masters noted that "William Burke, Earl of Ulster, was killed by the English of Ulster. The Englishmen who committed this deed were put to death, in divers ways, by the people of the King of England; some were hanged, others killed, and others torn asunder, in revenge of his death."

His widow, Maud, fled to England, where she remarried, was again widowed in 1346, and then became an Augustinian Canoness at Campsey Priory, where she is buried. Upon his death, the various factions of the de Burghs, now called Burke, began the Burke Civil War for supremacy.

Family tree

  Walter de Burgh of Burgh Castle, Norfolk.[2]
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  William de Burgh, died 1205.    Hubert de Burgh, 1st Earl of Kent, died 1243.
  |                                      (issue; John and Hubert)
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  |                                                                          |
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  Richard Mór de Burgh, 1st Baron of Connaught                Richard Óge de Burgh
  |                                                      (ancestor of Ulick Burke of Annaghkeen)
  |__________________________________________________________________
  |                                                               |
  |                                                               |
  Walter de Burgh, 1st Earl of Ulster                William Óg de Burgh
  |                                                               |
  |                                                               |
  Richard Óg de Burgh, 2nd Earl of Ulster           Edmond Albanach de Burgh
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  |___________________________________________________________________
  |                                                                 |
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  John de Burgh                                           Edmond de Burgh, 1298-1338.
  |                                                                 |
  |                                                                 |_______________________
  William Donn de Burgh, 3rd Earl of Ulster                         |                      |
  |                                                                 |                      |
  |                                                            Sir Richard, fl. 1387.   Sir David, fl. 1387.
  Elizabeth de Burgh, 4th Countess of Ulster                        |                      |
  |                                                                 |                      |
  |                                                      Burke of Castleconnell  Burke of Muskerryquirk
  Philippa, 5th Countess of Ulster                       Burke of Brittas
  |
  |
  Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March

Notes

References

•  Archer, Thomas Andrew (1886). "Burgh, William de". In Stephen, Leslie. Dictionary of National Biography. 7. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
• Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America Before 1700 by Frederick Lewis Weis; Lines 73-30, 177B-8, 177B-9.
• The Tribes and customs of Hy-Many, John O'Donovan, 1843
• The Surnames of Ireland, Edward MacLysaght, Dublin, 1978.
• The Anglo-Normans in Co. Galway: the process of colonization, Patrick Holland, Journal of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society, vol. 41,(1987–88)
• Excavation on the line of the medieval town defences of Loughrea, Co. Galway, J.G.A.& H.S., vol. 41, (1987–88)
• Anglo-Norman Galway; rectangular earthworks and moated sites, Patrick Holland, J.G.A. & H.S., vol. 46 (1993)
• Rindown Castle: a royal fortress in Co. Roscommon, Sheelagh Harbison, J.G.A. & H.S., vol. 47 (1995)
• The Anglo-Norman landscape in County Galway; land-holdings, castles and settlements, Patrick Holland, J.G.A.& H.S., vol. 49 (1997)
• Annals of Ulster at CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts at University College Cork
• Annals of Tigernach at CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts at University College Cork
• Revised edition of McCarthy's synchronisms at Trinity College Dublin.
• Cawley, Charles, Medieval Lands Project on Richard Mor de Burgh, son of William, Lord of Connaught and his descendants, Medieval Lands database, Foundation for Medieval Genealogy ,