Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 07.djvu/330

 art of the coast that was unknown to them. Many perished of the hardships they had to undergo. Among them Richard died in the early part of 1243. He married Egidia, daughter of Walter de Laci, and left an heir, Walter [q. v.], and other children. He is the ancestor of the house of Clanricarde [see. 

BURGH, RICHARD, second and fourth  (1259?–1326), was the eldest son of  [q. v.], first earl of Ulster, by his wife Avelma, sister of Richard FitzJohn, baron of the Isles of Thomond (Cal. Genealag. ii. 540). He succeeded to his father in 1271, but, being at that time a minor, was brought over to the king at Woodstock before the end of 1274, while his lands were entrusted to the custody of William Fitzwarenne in 1 Edward I (, ii. 941, 1077, 1520, 1629). It may be inferred that he came of age about 1280; for though he had not taken seisin of his Ulster estates by 4 Nov. 1279, he had already been at open war with his former guardian before July 1282, Hence it is probable that he was born in 1259 (ib. 1601, 1918, with which cf. 1629). He had married before the end of February 1281 (ib. 1794), Margaret, said to be a daughter of John de Burgh, baron of Lanville, and great-grandson of [q. v.]

De Burgh was constantly embroiled with the native Irish kings, especially of Connaught, his own lordship. Thus in 1286, when he makes his first great appearance in Irish history, he deposed Brian O’Neill from the supreme sovereignty of the natives of Ireland, and conferred the office on Niall Culanach O'Neill. Five years later he had to restore Niall, who had been in the meanwhile driven out by his rival, whom the earl in the course of a few months expelled from the country (Annals of Loch Cé sub annis). On Niall's death he placed another nominee of his own on the throne (ib.) In Connaught he played a similar part. In 1256 he burst into the province, plundering monasteries and churches, and receiving hostages everywhere,and before the year was out used the army of Connaught to reduce the septs of Cenet Eogtain and Cenel-Connaill. In 1292 he attacked Magnus O'Conor, kin of Connaught, the representative of that branch of the house of the last great Irish king before the conquest, which his ancestor, William de Burgh, had driven from the throne, and forced him to do submission at his castle of Milic. In the same manner De Burgh and his brothers William and Theobald are found supporting the claims of Aedh O’Conor, the descendant of their great-grandfather’s nominee, Cathal Crobdherg (1296). Many years later (1309-10) the De Burghs were instrumental in securing the accession of Aedh’s son, Felim O'Conor, who, however, did not scruple in the Scotch invasion of 1315 to negotiate with Edward Bruce, till the success of his rival, Roderic O’Conor, forced him to supplicate the earl's assistance. The Irish chronicles mention by name three castles that were built by De Burgh, viz. Ballimote in co. Sligo (1300), Greencastle in Galway (1305), and Sligo Castle (1310). In 1316 Felim O'Conor destroyed Milic Castle, the great Connaught fortress that had been founded in the early days of the English conquest (1203) by W11liam de Burgh (Annals of Loch Cé).

De Burgh was summoned to serve against the king of France in 1294, and again in 1297, on the understanding that he should attend the king in person (, iv. 396, 399, 452). All through the latter years of Edward I's reign, and the earlier years of Edward II, till 1322, he received summons regularly for the Scotch expeditions (Parl. Writs, i. passim). Thus he led more than sixteen hundred men from Ireland for the Balliol campaign of 1296; and at the second conquest of 1304 it was he who received (February) the submission of the Scotch governor, John Comyn (Hist. Duc. of Scotland, ii. 124; Excheq. Rolls of Scotland, No. 1451;, i. 282). Before setting out on this expedition he is said to have made thirty-three knights in Dublin Castle (Bodley MS. Laud 526, ap., ii. 321). In these campaigns he spent his money so lavishly on the king's behalf, that in 1305 more than 2,000l. was still owing to him by the crown, out of an original debt of 4,000l. (Irish Close Rolls, 7 b).

A great part of De Burgh's life was occupied with his hereditary feud with the Geraldines. In 1294 this feud reached a climax, when Lord John FitzThomas of Kildare suddenly made the Earl of Ulster a prisoner, and detained him in his castle from 6 Dec. to 12 March, when he was released by order of a parliament at Kilkenny. Edward declared that he would decide between them (October 1295), and summoned both nobles to attend him abroad (May 1297), their dispute being for the time postponed. In the interim the earl took the matter into his own hands, and the quarrel was not settled till 1302 (30 