OBrien

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O'Brien ( Ua/Ó Briain), successors of the Dál Cais as kings of Thomond in modern Co. Clare. Donogh (Donnchad Cairprech), king 1210–42, accepted a charter from King John for this reduced portion of the former O'Brien territory. Fresh royal grants of land in the region to Thomas de Clare in 1276 initiated a further cycle of English expansion, leading to several decades of conflict, until the battle of Dysert O'Dea ended the de Clare challenge. Thereafter the O'Briens continued to make periodic war on the English of Munster. Teig O'Brien ( Tadhg Ó Briain), king 1459–66, extended his lordship into adjacent parts of Cos. Limerick and Tipperary. In 1543, under the policy of surrender and regrant, Murrough O'Brien became 1st earl of Thomond and Baron Inchiquin. The Inchiquin title descended in a junior line, raised to an earldom in 1654 (see Inchiquin, Murrough O'Brien, 1st earl of). In 1663, following the Restoration, Daniel O'Brien, third son of the 3rd earl of Thomond, was created Viscount Clare. His great‐grandson Charles O'Brien, 5th viscount (d. 1706), followed James II to France after the Williamite War, and gave his name to a regiment in the French service. By contrast his cousins, the earls of Thomond and Inchiquin, were firm supporters of the Protestant succession, allowing the O'Briens to survive as one of the few families of Gaelic origin to become part of the 18th‐century landed elite. The earldom of Thomond became extinct in 1774; in 1800 the 5th earl of Inchiquin was made marquis of Thomond.

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