William Donn de Burgh, 3rd Earl of Ulster

William de Burgh, 3rd Earl of Ulster, called "Donn" meaning the "Brown Earl" [ [http://www.libraryireland.com/HullHistory/StatuteKilkenny1.php The Statute of Kilkenny ] ] , (September 17, 1312 – June 6, 1333) was a noble in the Peerage of Ireland

The grandson of 2nd Earl Richard Og de Burgh via his second son, John, William de Burgh was also Lord of Connaught in Ireland, and held the manor of Clare, Suffolk.

He was summoned to parliament from December 10, 1327 to June 15, 1328 by Writs addressed to "Willelmo de Burgh".

In November 1332, at Greencastle,County Donegal, near the mouth of Lough Foyle, [ [http://www.electricscotland.com/history/ulster/vol1chap12.htm The History of Ulster ] ] he had his cousin Sir Walter de Burgh starved to death. [* "Chronicle of Britain" ISBN 1-872031-35-8] The following year, he himself was murdered in a feud at Le Ford (now Belfast) by Sir Richard de Mandeville, Knt., John de Logan, and others. His widow fled to England, where she remarried, was again widowed in 1346, and then became an Augustinian Canoness at Campsey, Suffolk, where she is buried.

The third earl of Ulster married, before November 16, 1327, (by a Papal Dispensation dated May 1, 1327) Maud, daughter of Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster (a grandson of Henry III of England) by his spouse Maud, daughter and heiress of Sir Patrick de Chaworth, Knt. They had one child, a daughter Elizabeth.

* Elizabeth de Burgh, Countess of Ulster married Lionel of Antwerp, third son of Edward III of England.cite book | last=Curtis | first=Edmund | title=A History of Ireland | origyear=1950 | year=2004 | edition=6th ed. | publisher=Routledge | place=New York | pages=91–92 | id=ISBN 0-415-27949-6]

Upon the death of William Donn ("donn" is Irish for brownhair) the various factions of the de Burghs, now called Burke, began a civil war for supremacy.

References

* Richardson, Douglas, "Magna Carta Ancestry", Baltimore, Md., 2005, p.153. ISBN 0-8063-1759-0