Richard Mór de Burgh, 1st Baron of Connaught

Richard Mór de Burgh, 1st Lord of Connacht (English: /dˈbɜːr/; d’-BER; c.1194–1242,[1] or 1243[2][3]), was an Anglo-Norman aristocrat who was Seneschal of Munster and Justiciar of Ireland (1228–32).

Richard Mór de Burgh
1st Lord of Connaught
The inverted shield of Richard de Burgh from ‘Historia Anglorum’ (c.1250–59): British Library, Royal MS.14 CVII Historia Anglorum.
Justiciar of Ireland
In office
13 February 1228 – 16 June 1232
Preceded byGeoffrey de Marisco
Succeeded byHubert de Burgh, 1st Earl of Kent
Personal details
Bornc. 1194
Diedc. 1242
SpouseEgidia de Lacy, Lady of Connacht
ChildrenSir Richard de Burgh
Walter de Burgh, 1st Earl of Ulster
William Óg de Burgh
Alice de Burgh
Margery de Burgh
Matilda de Burgh
Daughter de Burgh
Parents

Background

Richard Mór de Burgh was born towards the end of the year in 1193 (and came of age in 1214). He was the eldest son and heir of William de Burgh and his wife (daughter of Domnall Mór Ua Briain, King of Thomond). Richard's principal estate was in the barony of Loughrea where he built a castle in 1236 and a town was founded. He also founded Galway town and Ballinasloe. The islands on Lough Mask and Lough Orben were also part of his demesne.

From the death of his father (1206) until he reached his majority and received his inheritance (1214), Richard was a ward of the crown of England. In 1215 he briefly served in the household of his uncle, Hubert de Burgh, Earl of Kent. In 1223 (and again in 1225) he was appointed Seneschal of Munster and keeper of Limerick Castle.[4]

Limerick Castle

Connacht

In 1224, Richard claimed Connacht (which had been granted to his father but never, in fact, conquered by him): he asserted that the grant to the Gaelic king Cathal Crobdearg Ua Conchobair (after William de Burgh's death in 1206), had been on condition of faithful service and that the king's son, Aedh mac Cathal Crobdearg Ua Conchobair (who succeeded that year) had forfeited it. Richard had the favour of his uncle, Hubert, justiciar of England, and was later awarded Connacht (May 1227). Having been given custody of the counties of Cork and Waterford and all the crown lands of Decies and Desmond, he was appointed Justiciar of Ireland (1228–32). In 1230 he was able to send the King 2000 marks, the proceeds of a tax of one-sixteenth on ecclesiastical benefices. He was removed from office in 1232, but his disgrace was short-lived.

When, in 1232, his uncle Hubert's fell from grace, Richard was able to distance himself and avoid being campaigned against by Henry III. It was only in 1235, when he summoned the whole feudal host of the English lords and magnates to aid him, that he finally expelled the Gaelic king, Felim mac Cathal Crobderg Ua Conchobair, from Connacht. Richard and his lieutenants received great shares of land, while Felim was obliged to pay homage and was allowed to hold only five cantreds (in Roscommon), while Richard held the remaining 25 cantreds of Connacht in chief of the crown of England. De Burgh took the title of "Lord of Connacht".[1]

Wife and children

Before 21 April 1225, he married Egidia de Lacy (daughter of Walter de Lacy and his wife Margaret de Braose), with which alliance he acquired the cantred of Eóghanacht Caisil with the castle of Ardmayle in Tipperary. Richard and Egidia had three sons and four daughters:

Richard de Burgh died shortly before 17 February 1243.

Ancestry

Notes
  1. Curtis, Edmund (2004) [1950]. A History of Ireland (6th ed.). New York: Routledge. pp. 70–72. ISBN 0-415-27949-6.
  2. Lodge 1754, p. 24.
  3. Owen 1790, p. 8.
  4. Smith, B. (2004). "Burgh, Richard de (died 1243), justiciar of Ireland". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/3994. ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. Retrieved 21 December 2021. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  5. Matthew Paris, Chronica majora, iv, pp 628, 655.
  6. Burke, Bernard. "Prendergast Lineage", A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Colonial Gentry, Harrison, 1895, p. 773.

References

Secondary sources
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