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Richard Burke, 4th Earl of Clanricarde facts for kids

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Richard Burke
Earl of Clanricarde
Tenure 1601–1635
Predecessor Ulick Burke, 3rd Earl of Clanricarde
Successor Ulick Burke, 1st Marquess of Clanricarde
Born 1572
Died 12 November 1635
Spouse(s) Frances Walsingham
Issue
Detail
Ulick, & others
Father Ulick, 3rd Earl of Clanricarde
Mother Honora Burke

Richard Burke, 4th Earl of Clanricarde (also Richard de Burgh) (English: /dˈbɜːr/; D'-ber; English: /klænˈrɪkɑːrd/; klan-RIK-ard; 1572 – 12 November 1635) was an Irish nobleman and politician.

He was the son of Ulick Burke, 3rd Earl of Clanricarde. Knighted in 1602 for his exploits as leader of the English cavalry during the Battle of Kinsale, he would later serve as Governor of Connaught from 1604 to 1616, and as a member of the Privy Council of Ireland. Having established himself as the largest and most influential landowner in Connacht, his later life was characterized by animosity between him and an increasingly hostile and acquisitive Dublin government.

Birth and origins

Family tree
Richard Burke with wife, parents, and selected relatives.
Richard
2nd Earl

d. 1582
Margaret
O'Brien
Ulick
3rd Earl
d. 1601
Honora
Burke

b. c. 1535
Richard
4th Earl
1572–1635
Frances
Walsingham

1567–1633
William
Burke

d. 1626
Joan
O'Shaugh-
nessy
Ulick
1st Marquess

1604–1657
Richard
6th Earl
d. 1666
William
7th Earl
d. 1687
Lettice
Shirley

c. 1617 – 1655
Richard
8th Earl
d. aft. 1708
John
9th Earl
1642–1722
Mary
Talbot

d. 1711
Legend
XXX Subject of
the article
XXX Earls & Marquesses
of Clanricarde

Richard was born in 1572, the second but eldest surviving son of Ulick Burke and his wife Honora Burke. His father was the 3rd Earl of Clanricarde. His father's family was Old English and descended from William de Burgh (died 1206) who arrived in Ireland during the reign of King Henry II, and was the founder of the House of Burgh in Ireland.

His mother was a daughter of John Burke of Clogheroka and Tullyra, County Galway. Her family was a cadet branch of his father's line.

Richard had brothers and sisters who are listed in his father's article.

Early life

Burke studied at Christ Church, Oxford from 1584 to 1598 and completed an M.A. degree. Burke fought for Queen Elizabeth I against the rebel Irish lords and their Spanish allies during the Nine Years' War.

Clanricarde

On 20 May 1601 Burke succeeded his father as the 4th Earl of Clanricarde.

Marriage and children

In 1603, Clanricarde married Frances Walsingham, the widow of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, daughter of Francis Walsingham.

Richard and Frances had one son:

  1. Ulick, his successor

—and two daughters:

  1. Mary, married Edward Butler of Ballinahinch, 6th son of James Butler, 9th Earl of Ormond as his 2nd wife
  2. Honora (d. 1661), married 1st Garrat McCloghlan and 2ndly John Paulet, 5th Marquis of Winchester

Later life

By 1633 he was not only one of the principal landowners in Ireland, but virtually all-powerful in County Galway. This aroused the resentment of the Dublin Government, which decided to use the method of empanelling juries to "find" defective titles, in order to recover the lands in question for the English Crown. In 1634 Strafford held such a jury in Portumna Castle. However the jury refused to deliver the desired verdict.

Portumna castle
Portumna Castle was commissioned by Richard Burke and completed in 1617.

Death

The treatment that Clanricarde experienced from the Lord Deputy of Ireland, Thomas Wentworth, was said to have hastened his death in November 1635.

Wentworth, however, pointed to the Earl's advancing years as the obvious cause, and asked sarcastically whether he was to blame for a man being over sixty. The feud, which was continued by Clanricarde's son and heir, was in the long run very damaging to Strafford, who apparently did not reflect on the close connections that Clanricarde, through his wife, had with just that faction of the English nobility, the Rich-Devereux clan, who were most hostile to Strafford.

Arms

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