[1] The following account of the Irish clan-system differs in some
respects from that in the article on BREHON LAWS (_q.v._); but it is
retained here in view of the authority of the writer and the admitted
obscurity of the whole subject. (ED. _E.B._)
[2] The explanation here given of _geilfine_ is different from that
given in the introduction to the third volume of the _Ancient Laws of
Ireland_, which was followed by Sir H.S. Maine in his account of it
in his _Early History of Institutions_, and which the present writer
believes to be erroneous.
[3] It should also be mentioned that illegitimacy was not a bar. The
issue of "handfast" marriages in Scotland were eligible to be chiefs,
and even sometimes claimed under feudal law.
[4] This office is of considerable importance in connexion with early
Scottish history. In the Irish annals the _rig_, or chief of a great
tribe (_mor tuath_), such as of Ross, Moray, Marr, Buchan, &c., is
called a _mor maer_, or great _maer_. Sometimes the same person is
called king also in these annals. Thus _Findlaec_, or Finlay, son of
_Ruadhri_, the father of Shakespeare's Macbeth, is called king of
Moray in the _Annals of Ulster_, and _mor maer_ in the _Annals of
Tighernach_. The term is never found in Scottish charters, but it
occurs in the Book of the Abbey of Deir in Buchan, now in the library
of the university of Cambridge. The Scotic kings and their successors
obviously regarded the chiefs of the great tribes in question merely
as their _maers_, while their tribesmen only knew them as kings. From
these "mor-maerships," which corresponded with the ancient _mor
tuatha_, came most, if not all, the ancient Scottish earldoms.
CLANRICARDE, ULICK DE BURGH (BOURKE or BURKE), 1st EARL OF (d. 1544),
styled MacWilliam, and Ne-gan or Na-gCeann (i.e. "of the Heads," "having
made a mount of the heads of men slain in battle which he covered up
with earth"), was the son of Richard or Rickard de Burgh, lord of
Clanricarde, by a daughter of Madden of Portumna, and grandson of Ulick
de Burgh, lord of Clanricarde (1467-1487), the collateral heir male of
the earls of Ulster. On the death of the last earl in 1333, his only
child Elizabeth had married Lionel, duke of Clarence, and the earldom
became merged in the crown, in consequence of which the de Burghs
abjured English laws and sovereignty, and chose for their chiefs the
sons of Sir William, the "Red" earl of Ulster's brother, the elder
William taking the title of MacWilliam Eighter (Uachtar, i.e. Upper),
and becoming the ancestor of the earls of Clanricarde, and his brother
Sir Edmond that of MacWilliam Oughter (Ochtar, i.e. Lower), and founding
the family of the earls of Mayo. In 1361 the duke of Clarence was sent
over as lord-lieutenant to Ireland to enforce his claims as husband of
the heir general, but failed, and the chiefs of the de Burghs maintained
their independence of English sovereignty for several generations. Ulick
de Burgh succeeded to the headship of his clan, exercised a quasi-royal
authority and held vast estates in county Galway, in Connaught,
including Loughry, Dunkellin, Kiltartan (Hilltaraght) and Athenry, as
well as Clare and Leitrim. In March 1541, however, he wrote to Henry
VIII., lamenting the degeneracy of his family, "which have been brought
to Irish and disobedient rule by reason of marriage and nurseing with
those Irish, sometime rebels, near adjoining to me," and placing himself
and his estates in the king's hands. The same year he was present at
Dublin, when the act was passed making Henry VIII. king of Ireland. In
1543, in company with other Irish chiefs, he visited the king at
Greenwich, made full submission, undertook to introduce English manners
and abandon Irish names, received a regrant of the greater part of his
estates with the addition of other lands, was confirmed in the
captainship and rule of Clanricarde, and was created on the 1st of July
1543 earl of Clanricarde and baron of Dunkellin in the peerage of
Ireland, with unusual ceremony. "The making of McWilliam earl of
Clanricarde made all the country during his time quiet and obedient,"
states Lord Chancellor Cusake in his review of the state of Ireland in
1553.[1] He did not live long, however, to enjoy his new English
dignities, but died shortly after returning to Ireland about March 1544.
He is called by the annalist of Loch Ce "a haughty and proud lord," who
reduced many under his yoke, and by the Four Masters "the most
illustrious of the English in Connaught."
Clanricarde married (1) Grany or Grace, daughter of Mulrone O'Carroll,
"prince of Ely," by whom he had Richard or Rickard "the Saxon," who
succeeded him as 2nd earl of Clanricarde (grandfather of the 4th earl,
whose son became marquess of Clanricarde), this alliance being the only
one declared valid. After parting with his first wife he married (2)
Honora, sister of Ulick de Burgh, from whom he also parted. He married
(3) Mary Lynch, by whom he had John, who claimed the earldom in 1568.
Other sons, according to Burke's _Peerage_, were Thomas "the Athlete,"
shot in 1545, Redmond "of the Broom" (d. 1595), and Edmund (d. 1597).
See also _Annals of Ireland by the Four Masters_ (ed. by O. Connellan,
1846), p. 132 note, and reign of Henry VIII.; _Annals of Loch Ce
(Rerum Brit. Medii Aevi Scriptores_) (54) (1871); _Hist. Mem. of the
O'Briens_, by J.O. Donoghue (i860), pp 159, 519; _Ireland under the
Tudors_, by R. Bagwell, vol. i.; _State Papers, Ireland, Carew MSS._
and Gairdner's _Letters and Papers of Henry VIII.; Cotton MSS._ Brit.
Mus., Titus B xi. f. 388. (P.C.Y.)