Ulster, earldom of

Ulster, earldom of, the key unit of medieval English lordship in the north of Ireland. Its founder, John de Courcy, never bore the title of earl, which was first given to his rival, Hugh de Lacy II, by King John in 1205. Lacy died without heirs in 1242, and, after a spell of royal rule, Ulster was granted to the de Burghs in 1263. The earldom was based on de Courcy's conquest of Ulaid, where the earls had their main castles such as Carrickfergus, Dundrum, and Greencastle (Co. Down). Richard de Burgh, the Red Earl (1280–1326), acquired Derry from its bishop, and built Northburgh Castle on the Inishowen peninsula. The earldom, which had liberty jurisdiction, was organized into administrative shires based around centres such as Antrim, Carrickfergus, and Newtownards. These areas saw settlement by gentry and traders from north‐west England and southern Scotland; prominent among the former were the Savages of the Ards, originally from Chester, who often served as seneschals of Ulster in the late Middle Ages.

At its height, the earls' power radiated into the Gaelic districts, where the O'Neills, O'Cahans, O'Flynns, and others owed military services and sought their patronage. This overlordship was lost as a result of the Bruce invasion (1315–18) and the murder in 1333 of William, the last de Burgh earl, who was succeeded by absentees. English Ulster did not collapse immediately: in the 1350s William's mother Elizabeth de Clare drew a substantial income from her manors around Coleraine. But it was gradually eroded by the Irish recovery and the intrusion of the MacDonnells from Scotland. In the 15th century the earldom was confined to Carrickfergus and coastal enclaves in Down. The title itself passed to the crown, through the Mortimers and Richard of York, on the accession of Edward IV in 1461.

Bibliography

Duffy, S. , ‘The First Ulster Plantation: John de Courcy and the Men of Cumbria’, in T. B. Barry, R. Frame, and K. Simms (eds.), Colony and Frontier in Medieval Ireland (1995)
McNeill, T. E. , Medieval Ulster: The History of an Irish Barony (1980)
Orpen, G. H. , Ireland under the Normans 1169–1333 (1911–20)

Robin Frame