Richard De Burgh, 2nd Earl of Ulster

Alfred Webb

A Compendium of Irish Biography

1878

De Burgh, Richard, 2nd Earl of Ulster, son of preceding, commonly known as the "Red Earl," was educated at the court of Henry III. For his successes against the Scots he was made general over the Irish forces in Ireland, Great Britain, and France. He was esteemed the most powerful subject of his time in Ireland. Besides carrying on hostilities with the native chieftains, he besieged Thomas de Verdon in Athlone, and advanced with a great army to Trim. Three times he assisted the English kings in their descents upon Scotland. He founded monasteries or castles at Loughrea, Ballymote, Corran, Sligo, Castleconnel in Limerick, and Greencastle in Down. On Whit-Sunday 1326 he sumptuously entertained the Anglo-Norman knights of the Pale assembled at Kilkenny, previous to shutting himself up in the monastery at Athassel, where he died the same year.

Sources

52. Burke, Sir Bernard: Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages. London, 1866.

216. Lodge's Peerage of Ireland, Revised and Enlarged by Mervyn Archdall. 7 vols. Dublin, 1789.

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