Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 3.djvu/248

 228 CLANRICARDE CLANRICARDEC) EARLDOM [I.] I. Ulick Bourke or de Burgh, of Clanricarde,(*) co. Galway, s. and h. of Richard Bourke " MacWilliam," I. 1543. Chief of Cknrickard (d. Apr. 1530), by Margaret, da. of Piers (Butler), Earl of Ormond and Ossory,() sue. to the vast territory of Clanricarde, and to the headship of his Clan, as the " MacWilliam^' ('=) in 1 541, on the deposition of his father's cousin, Sir Ulick Bourke. He was called by the Irish " Negan,{^) i.e. " the Beheader"; was Gov. of Connaught, and having surrendered in person his large estates into the hands of the King, received a re-grant thereof, with the Monastery, De Via Nova, in the diocese of Clonfert. He was cr., i July 1543, EARL OF CLANRICARDE,C) AND BARON OF DUNKELLIN [L], under l^) Clanricarde (the county of the Bourkes), consists of the six Baronies of Loughrea, Dunkellin, Kiltartan {otlurwisf Killtaraght), Clare, Athenry, and Leitrim, co. Galway, in Connaught. For the ranking of Irish peers at various dates, see vol. i, Appendix A. ('') See various pedigrees compiled not later than 1575, now in Trin. Coll., Dublin. Some accounts make her da. of ( — ) O'Maden, but the marriage with the da. of O'Maden, by which the chiefs of Clanricarde are said to have acquired Portumna, took place in the 14th century {ex inform. G. D. Burtchaell), and the Earl was certainly allied, through hismother, to the Butlers, whosupported himagainst his rival Ulick. V.G. (■=) He was great-grandson of Ulick Bourke, feudal Lord of Clanricarde {1467-87), the collateral heir male of the great Earls of Ulster [I.], extinct, in the direct male line, 1333. Since that extinction "the two next male branches of the family,* took possession of the lands and, supported by the national feeling in favour of the succession of heirs male, retained the greater part of them in defiance of all the efforts of the Crown. Lionel, Duke of Clarence, who had married the heir general, was sent over as Lord Lieut, of Ireland [1361-67], for the avowed purpose of enforcing his claims; but found the feeling of the country too strong to give him any chance of success. The Crown at length had the good sense to give up the contest, and to ennoble these two branches, by conferring upon them the peerages of Clan- rickard and Mayo." See Remarks upon the ancient Baronage of Ireland, 1829, p. 77, written, doubtless, by W. Lynch, author of the Feudal Baronies of Ireland. For the origin of the race of De Burgh, see an article in Her. iff Gen., vol. iv, p. 337. that is the upper, nearer, or southern Mac-William," ancestor of the Earls of Clanri- carde; and (2) '■'■ Mac-lFilliam Oughter, the lower, further, or northern MacWilliam," ancestor of the Earls of Mayo and of the extinct Viscounts Bourke of Mayo. i^) " Negan, that is a capitibus, having made a mount of the heads of men slain in battle, which he covered with earth." {Lodge, vol. i, p. 128). if) On I May 1 54 1 the King agreed to make him an Earl provided he came to have the dignity conferred in person, otherwise he was to have the honour of a Viscount or a Baron, {ex inform. G. D. Burtchaell). The Chiefs of the great Irish houses were raised to the highest Peerage rank in Ireland (for such at that time was, for any subject, an Earldom) by Henry VlII and some of his successors per saltum, on their abandoning their almost regal power over their clan. Such was the Earldom of Tyrone and Barony of Dungannon, conferred in 1542, respectively, on Con O'Neill and his son and heir ap.; the Earldom of Clanricarde, conferred i July 1543, on Ulick
 * According to Lodge, vol. iii, p. 414, these were (i) " Afac-lf^illiam Eighter,