Page:The Complete Peerage (Edition 1, Volume 8).djvu/13

UOHTRED — ULSTER. 3 Thomas UaiiTmD,(*) grandson and h. being s. and h. of William, or Sir William Ughtred who (i. T.p. He •tic hii gnndfAther in Nov. 1401 and proved hit age in 1404. He nk in or before 1401, Margaret, da. and coheir of Sir Thomaa QoODARD, bj Constance, da. and coheir of Sir Thomas DB SoTTOir, of Holderneaa. Sir Robbrt Uohtrbd,(*) b. and h. He was found (1447-48), 26 Hen. VI. ooiitin and h. of Sir Thomaa Sutton. He m. Katharine, da. of Sir WUIiam Rukb. Sir Hrkrt Uohtrbd,('^) b. and h. He m. £lizabeth, da. of Sir John Sbtsioub, of Wolf Hall, oo. Someraet He d, (1510-U), 2 Hen. VIIL WUl pr. at York before 1515. Robbrt Uoni'RBD,(*) s. and h. He m. Elizabeth, da. of William PAIRr.X. RoBBBT Uohtrbd(^) of Kexbj, oo. York afsd., liying (1551), 5 Kd. VI. ULSTER.(«>) [Remarks on this dignity as communicated, Jan. 1884, by R. R Gheeter Waten ; '*Trr Earldom of Ulbtrr was the ftnt and for 185 yeara the onlif title of Honour in Ireland of English creation ,(«) It waa a Feudal rather than a Personal dignity, for it was enjoyed by suoceasive Lords of Ulster, no way related to eaich other. It was originally granted,(') in 1180, by Henry II. to John Di CoURCi (the Conqueror of Ulster) in fee, but he was declared a public enemy by King John and, altho* no sentence of forfeiture was formally rocord<Kl against him, he was despoiled by force both of the Dominion of Ulster and of the Earldom(*) by Hugh de Laci, in 1205. Hugh de Laoi obtained a charter from King John, on 29 Mav 1205, oonfirming to him and his heirs the Dominion of Ulster, of which the King had belted him Earl,(«) to hold as freely of the Crown in fee as John de Gourd held it on the year and day on which Hugh conquered him and took him prisoner in the field, llie Earldom was forfeited for high treason by Hugh de Lad, in 1210, and altho' he was restored in 1226 it was only re-granted to him for his life, for, when he died in 1248, his only sunr. da. and h.,(*) Matilda, Lady of Kaas, made no pretension of succession to the Earldom, altho* she tue.^ without question, to the Barony of Carliogford, which had been her mother's marriage portion. On Hugh de Iiaci's death in 1243, the Karldom and Dominion of Ulster lapsed to the Crown ss an escheat, and was included iu the Itoval Grant of Ireland to Prince E<lward, in 12** [1254]. But, altho* Ulster was equal to a fifth part of the whole island, it waa oomparatiyely improductive (•) See p. 2, note ** d." (^) See ¥01. i, pp. iz — ^xx, as to the prindpal " Honoura '* and feudal Baronies of Ireland before the 16th century. («) The grant of the Earldom of Ulster, 29 May 1205, to Hugh de Lacy, is stated to be "The earliest creation of an Anglo-Norman dignity in Ireland, of which there is any extant record." Nat, Diogr. iu C. L. Kingsford's article on " Lacy.*'] (^) As to the assertion that John de Courcy whs created Earl of Lhter, tho' " repeated it would seem by all, even by the best suthorites ... it is certain that this title was the inveiiti'tn of a Inte chronicler and that it first appears in the ' Book of Howih,'* where we read of ' Sir John Couroey, Earl and President [ne] of Ulster*' " [NaL Bingr., in the able article of J. H. Round on " Gourd."] (•) According to J. H. Hound's " The Earldotm of Ormond in Ireland " [Foster's ^Oofl Oen,**]f the Earldom of Ulster was granted to de Lacy, 1205-06, with limitation to heirs general and "duly passed through females from Lacy to De Burgh, from De Bnrgh to Plantagenet, Ac." — but the fact of such descent from Lacy seems erroneous (see p. 4, note " e " below), and, failing this, there seems no valid ground to presume that the grant, if, indeed, not for life only, extended beyond heirs mtde of the B*