Earls of Ulster

ULSTER, EARLS OF. The earldom of Ulster was the first title of honour in Ireland of English creation, and for more than a century was the only one. It dates from a grant to de Lacy in 1205.

Hugh de Lacy,

1st Earl of Ulster (d. 1242?), was descended from Walter de Lacy (d. Io85), who fought for William the Conqueror at Hastings. The first earl was the brother of Walter de Lacy (d. 1241), who succeeded his father as lord of Heath in 1186. In 1203 Hugh de Lacy drove John de Courci out of Down, and was rewarded by grants of land, and in 1205 by the earldom of Ulster. He was then invested with quasi-viceregal authority, but in 1207 war broke out between the earl and the king's jus ticiar. King John came to Ireland, and banished the earl to Scotland. He returned to Ireland in 1226, and died at Carrick fergus. On his death the earldom reverted to the Crown.

Second Creation.

Prince Edward (afterwards Edward I.), transferred "the county of Ulster" (c. 1255), to Walter de Burgh, lord of Connaught. The earldom remained in the family of de Burgh until the death of William, 3rd earl of this line, in 1333, when it passed to his daughter Elizabeth, who married Lionel, afterward duke of Clarence, son of Edward III. Lionel was suc

ceeded in the earldom of Ulster by his daughter Philippa, who married Edmund Mortimer, earl of March. The third Mortimer, earl of Ulster, died unmarried in 1425, when his titles were in herited by Richard Plantagenet, duke of York, whose son Edward ascended the throne as Edward IV. in 1461.

Since that date the earldom of Ulster, which then merged in the Crown, has only been held by members of the royal family. In 1928 it was bestowed upon H.R.H. the Duke of Gloucester.

See, for the de Lacy and de Burgh earls of Ulster, The Chronicle of Florence of Worcester, edited by T. Forester (1854) ; Annals of Ireland by the Four Masters, edited by J. O'Donovan (7 vols., Dublin, 1851) ; The Annals of Loch Ce, edited by W. M. Hennessy, "Rolls Series" (2 vols., 1871) ; Calendar of Documents Relating to Ireland, edited by H. S. Sweetman (5 vols., 1875-86) ; W. W. Shirley, Royal and Historical Letters of the Reign of Henry III., "Rolls Series" (2 vols., r862-66) ; Sir J. T. Gilbert, History of the Viceroys of Ireland (Dublin, 1865). For the later history of the earldom see G. E. C., Complete Peerage, vol. viii. (1898).