Hainault, was born at Antwerp on the vigil of St. Andrew, 29 Nov. 1338 (Murimuth, Cont. Chron. p. 87), during the long stay made by his parents in the Low Countries by reason of the war against France. He was baptised Lionel, either, we are told, ‘from being the offspring of the Lion of England,’ his father, or ‘to revive the British name Llywelyn.’ From the place of his birth he derived his usual surname ‘of Antwerp.’ When he was only three years old his father obtained for him the prospect of a rich marriage, which foreshadowed the later policy of Edward of concentrating the great fiefs in the hands of his children. In 1332 the young William de Burgh, sixth lord of Connaught and third earl of Ulster [q. v.], and the head of one of the greatest of the Anglo-Norman houses in Ireland, had been murdered, leaving an only child, a daughter, Elizabeth, by his wife, Maud of Lancaster. About 1341 Edward arranged to marry Lionel to Elizabeth de Burgh, then a girl of about nine, and six years the senior of her destined husband, to whom she brought the ample marriage portion of western and northern Ireland. Moreover, to make this great inheritance more of a reality, Edward III appointed Ralph Ufford—a gallant soldier, who had married the widowed Countess of Ulster, Elizabeth's mother—governor of Ireland. This was in February 1344. No great success, however, attended Ufford's efforts on behalf of Lionel and Elizabeth. He died in 1346.
Lionel's first public office was obtained on 1 July 1345, when he was appointed guardian and lieutenant of England during his father's absence abroad. He was reappointed to the same office on 25 June 1346 (Doyle, Official Baronage, i. 396). Not later than January 1347 he was created Earl of Ulster, whereupon Edward III ordered that all proceedings connected with Elizabeth's inheritance should be henceforth transacted in his name. In 1352 the actual marriage took place. In 1355 Lionel was made a knight and entered into the career of arms. In September he went with his father on an expedition to the north of France (Avesbury, p. 427; Walsingham, Hist. Anglicana, i. 280; Chron. Angliæ, 1328–88, p. 33). The French, however, retreated as Edward advanced from Calais, and nothing important was done. On 8 May 1359 Lionel became steward of the manor of Westraddon, Devonshire (Doyle, i. 396).
During these years the state of Ireland had grown steadily worse, and very little of Elizabeth's vast heritage was really in the hands of herself or her husband. In 1361 Edward III resolved to send Lionel as governor, believing ‘that our Irish dominions have been reduced to such utter devastation, ruin, and misery, that they may be totally lost if our subjects there are not immediately succoured.’ A great gathering of English holders of land in Ireland was assembled at Easter. The assembled lords were ordered to provide soldiers and accompany Lionel to defend their estates. On 1 July Lionel was appointed the king's lieutenant in Ireland, having been previously made a knight of the Garter. He landed in Dublin in September 1361, accompanied by his wife and many great landowners. The young viceroy displayed some vigour. He provided for his own safety by prohibiting any man born in Ireland from approaching his army (‘Annals of Ireland’ in Cartularies, &c., of St. Mary's, Dublin, ii. 395), but he lost a hundred of his mercenaries on an inroad into the O'Byrne's country, and he was soon glad to rely as usual upon the aid of the Norman lords. On 10 Feb. 1362 Edward strove to strengthen his son's hands by reiterating the orders issued in the previous year to the possessors of Irish estates. On 13 Nov. of the same year Lionel was created Duke of Clarence, at the same time as his brother John was made Duke of Lancaster. The title was derived from the town of Clare in Suffolk, the lordship of which, with other shares in the divided Gloucester estates, had been inherited by Elizabeth from her grandmother, Elizabeth of Clare [q. v.], the sister and coheiress of Gilbert of Clare (1291–1314) [q. v.], the last earl of Gloucester of the house of Clare. The special occasion for the grant was the celebration of the king's fiftieth birthday (Chron. Angliæ, p. 52). Lionel, however, remained in Ireland, and was thus precluded from a personal investiture before the assembled estates. His salary was now doubled, and his army increased. He busied himself with various works, ‘agreeable to him for sports and his other pleasures as well within the castle of Dublin as elsewhere.’ He made inquiries into the rights of the chartered towns and carried out many expeditions against the Irish. In the same year his wife Elizabeth died, leaving an only child, a daughter named Philippa, whose marriage in 1368 to Edmund Mortimer, third earl of March [q. v.], ultimately transferred her claims to the throne to the Yorkist house.
Lionel was absent from his government between April and December 1364, when the Earl of Ormonde acted as his deputy. He was again in England in 1365, on which occasion he was represented in Ireland by Sir Thomas Dale (Cartularies, &, of St. Mary's,
