aught, though not his Munster estates, died in 1205. His son
Richard, in 1227, received the land of "Connok" [Connaught], as forfeited
by its king, whom he helped to fight. From 1228 to 1232 he held the high
office of justiciar of Ireland. In 1234 he sided with the crown against
Richard, earl marshal, who fell in battle against him. Dying in 1243, he
was succeeded as lord of Connaught by his son Richard, and then (1248) by
his younger son Walter, who carried on the family warfare against the
native chieftains, and added greatly to his vast domains by obtaining (c.
1255) from Prince Edward a grant of "the county of Ulster," in consequence
of which he was styled later earl of Ulster. At his death in 1271, he was
succeeded by his son Richard as 2nd earl. In 1286 Richard ravaged and
subdued Connaught, and deposed Bryan O'Neill as chief native king,
substituting a nominee of his own. The native king of Connaught was also
attacked by him, in favour of that branch of the O'Conors whom his own
family supported. He led his forces from Ireland to support Edward I. in
his Scottish campaigns, and on Edward Bruce's invasion of Ulster in 1315
Richard marched against him, but he had given his daughter Elizabeth in
marriage to Robert Bruce, afterwards king of Scotland, about 1304.
Occasionally summoned to English parliaments, he spent most of his forty
years of activity in Ireland, where he was the greatest noble of his day,
usually fighting the natives or his Anglo-Norman rivals. The patent roll of
1290 shows that in addition to his lands in Ulster, Connaught and Munster,
he had held the Isle of Man, but had surrendered it to the king.

His grandson and successor William, the 3rd earl (1326-1333), was the son
of John de Burgh by Elizabeth, lady of Clare, sister and co-heir of the
last Clare earl of Hertford (d. 1314). He married a daughter of Henry, earl
of Lancaster, and was appointed lieutenant of Ireland in 1331, but was
murdered in his 21st year, leaving a daughter, the sole heiress, not only
of the de Burgh possessions, but of vast Clare estates. She was married in
childhood to Lionel, son of Edward III., who was recognized in her right as
earl of Ulster, and their direct representative, the duke of York, ascended
the throne in 1461 as Edward IV., since when the earldom of Ulster has been
only held by members of the royal family.

On the murder of the 3rd earl (1333), his male kinsmen, who had a better
right, by native Irish ideas