withheld all marks of favour from him (ib. Exp. Hib. ccxv-xx, 334-47, for the whole history of Fitzaldhelm's government, but it should be checked by the less rhetorical and more impartial account of Bened. Abbas, with which it is often in direct conflict). This makes it probable that Fitzaldhelm was not quite equal to the difficulties of his position. Substantially his fall was a great triumph for the Geraldines.
Fitzaldhelm now resumed his duties as 'dapifer' at the English court. From 1181 onwards he was sufficiently in favour for his name to appear again in the records (e.g. Eyton, pp. 245, 267). In 1188 he became sheriff of Cumberland, and in 1189 acted also as justice in Yorkshire, Northumberland, and his own county (ib. pp. 298, 336). He remained sheriff of Cumberland until 1198 (Thirty-first Report of Deputy-Keeper of Records, p. 276). In 1189 he witnessed a charter of Christ Church, Canterbury (Gervase, Op. Hist. i. 503). In 1194 he attested a grant of lands to the cook of Queen Eleanor (Fœdera, i. 63). These are the last appearances of his name in the records. He is said to have married Juliana, daughter of Robert Doisnell (Hearne, Liber Niger Scaccarii, i. 73).
Fitzaldhelm has been generally identified with a William de Burgh (d. 1204), who occupies a very prominent position in the first years of John's reign in Ireland. A William de Burgh appears with his wife Eleanor in the 'Pipe Roll' of 1 Richard I (p. 176), but he is undoubtedly different from Fitzaldhelm, as the latter appears by his regular name in the same roll. In 1199 William de Burgh received from John large grants of land and castles in Ireland (Rot. Chart, pp. 19 b, 71 b, 84 b, 107 b ; the earliest grants of John to him were before the latter became king, Hist. MSS. Comm. 3rd Rep. p. 231). Of these Limerick was the most important. In 1200 he became the terror of the Irish of Connaught. He supported the pretender, Cathal Carrach, in his attempts to dispossess Cathal Crobhderg, the head of the O'Conors, from the throne of Connaught. 'There was no church from the Shannon westwards to the sea that they did not pillage or destroy, and they used to strip the priests in the churches and carry off the women without regard to saint or sanctuary or to any power upon earth' (Annals of Loch Cé, i. 213). Cathal Crobhderg was expelled and took refuge with John de Courci. But in 1202 he made terms with William de Burgh, and a fresh expedition from Munster again devastated Connaught (the Four Masters, iii. 129, put this expedition in 1201 ). Cathal Carrach was slain, but the treacherous Cathal Crobhderg contrived a plot to assassinate in detail the followers of De Burgh. Nine hundred or more were murdered, but the remainder rallied and the erection of the strong castle of Meelick secured some sort of conquest of Connaught for the invaders. A quarrel between De Burgh and the king's justice, Meiler Fitzhenry [q. v.], for a time favoured the Irish. In 1203, while De Burgh was in Connaught, Meiler invaded his Munster estates (Ann. Loch Cé, i. 229-31). This brought William back to Limerick, but Meiler had already seized his castles. The result was an appeal to King John. William appeared before John in Normandy (Rot. de Liberate, 5 John, p. 67, summarised in Cal. Doc. Ireland, 1171-1251, No. 187), leaving his sons as hostages in the justiciar's hands. In March 1204 a commission, at the head of which was Walter de Lacy, was appointed to hear the complaints against De Burgh (Pat. 5 John, m. 2 ; Cal. Doc. Ireland, No. 209). The result was the restoration of his Munster estates, though Connaught, 'whereof he was disseised by reason of certain appeals and the dissension between the justiciary and himself,' was retained in the king's hands 'until the king knows how he shall have discharged himself' (Pat. 6 John, m. 8 ; Cal. Doc. Ireland, No. 230). Connaught, however, had not been restored when soon after William de Burgh died, 'the destroyer of all Erinn, of nobility and chieftainship' (Ann. Loch Cé, i. 235). The Irish believed that 'God and the saints took vengeance on him, for he died of a singular disease too shameful to be described ' (Four Masters, iii. 143). He was the uncle of Hubert de Burgh [q. v.] He was the father of Richard de Burgh [q. v.] (Rot. Claus, p. 551), who in 1222-3 received a fresh grant of Connaught and became the founder of the great house of the De Burghs. He founded the abbey of Athassell for Austin canons (Archdall, Monast. Hiber. p. 640), and is said to have been buried there.
[For Fitzaldhelm : Giraldus Cambrensis, Expugnatio Hibernica, in Opera, vol. v. ed. Dimock (Rolls Ser.); Benedictus Abbas, ed. Stubbs (Rolls Ser.); Rymer's Fœdera, vol. i. (Record ed.); Eyton's Itinerary, &c. of Henry II ; Pipe Roll, 1 Richard I (Record ed.), and the French poem on the conquest of Ireland, ed. Michel. For De Burgh : Annals of Loch Cé, i. 211-35 (Rolls Ser.) ; Annals of the Four Masters ; Rotuli Chartarum, Rotuli Literarum Patentium, Rotuli de Oblatis, Rotuli de Liberate. For both : Sweetman's Calendar of Documents relating to Ireland, 1171-1251; Book of Howth; Gilbert's Viceroys of Ireland; Dugdale's Baronage ; Lodge's Peerage of Ireland (Archdall).]
