KING EDWARD VHI

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 75, 28 March 1936, Page 6

KING EDWARD VHI

HIS TKISH ANCESTKY

LINK WITH RODERICK

O'CONNOR

The Irish descent of the reigning Royal House, now known as the House of Windsor, was first conspicuously al brought forward in the reign of Queen h: Victoria. The' sovereign's ancestry 01 was traced through every link.of the A chain to Roderick O'Connor, the last Ard-Righ, or monarch, of Ireland, and * this genealogy is generally accepted ■ by that wide circle of readers of history who remain untouched by the . searching critical methods of the modern school of historians (says the Irish Times," Dublin). Nearly seven years ago the subject attracted a number of able and h learned contributions to the Irish Times," which are highly interesting to read today. The first adduced evidence to prove that "King George has in his veins the blood- of the old kings of f Ireland." r HUGO DE LACY. d The story goes back to the great v Hu"o de Lacy, whom Henry II made fl his Lord Lieutenant, then recalled v upon complaint of some of the more, envious among his countrymen, and v later sent back to Ireland, where he t: met his death while he was building c the castle of Durrow. "Cankred envy,' t says Hollinshed, "quieted not herselfe, f practised mischiefe against him, so a hat he was charged before the King t to attempt the Crowne of Ireland and make himself absolute Lord of the t Land, and that he had married the j, King of Connaught's daughter contrary t: to the King's pleasure." Hugos son, s called by his father's name, succeeded a to his father's possessions and was v 'created Earl of Ulster, a title that had t been borne by John de Courcy. His j sole heiress married Walter de Burgh, who became in his turn Earl of Ulster, and was succeeded in 1271 by his son Richard de Burgh, known as the Bed c Earl To this great Norman ruler in f Connaught the Clan Rickard trace their j descent. t A PLANTAGENET MARRIAGE. r With the Red Earl's grandson, the k Black Earl, the male succession failed, t and his daughter, the Lady Elizabeth \ de Burgh, Countess of Ulster, inherited t the great possessions of the house. She was a royal ward, and, being the great- V est heiress of her day, was married to t Lionel Duke of Clarence, son of Edward a 111 They had no sons, but their c daughter and heiress married Mortis mer Earl of March, whose daughter 1 was'mother of Richard the great Duke t of York who claimed the English throne against Henry VI, and originated the Wars of the Roses. Both Lionel Duke of Clarence and Richard Duke of York, each in his day, -held the office of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and under their favour the Geraldine families of Desmond and. Kildare attained to their highest dignity and power, and were staunch adherents of the White Rose. This favour was continued by Duke Richards son King Edward IV, a direct descendant' of the Lady Elizabeth de Burgh and of Hugo de Lacy. THE STEWART LINE. King Henry VII, by his marriage with the daughter of Edward IV, perpetrated the same descent. His daughter married James IV, of Scotland, and was grandmother of Mary Queen of Scots. The line of descent is thenceforward more familiar to the general reader. Mary's son, James I of England, had a daughter, Elizabeth, who married Frederick, the Elector Palatine. Their child Sophia, was mother of George I, the first sovereign of the present reigning house. Thus all the sovereigns of England for the past four centuries were descendants of Elizabeth de Burgh, Countess of Ulster, in her own right It would be rash, however, to conclude that they were descendants of Roderick, the Ard-Righ. Historians of the latter-day critical school are, as has been hinted, inexorable in their, minute examination of evidence. One of that school, signing himself "M.J.R.." interposed with effect in the "Irish Times" discussion of the topic. In his letter, published on January 23, 1922, he pointed out that Hugo de Lacy, Henry ll's Lord Lieutenant was married twice; to Rose of Monmouth in 1172, and after her death to King Roderick's daughter. His son, Hugo who succeeded him in 1189, and was afterwards created Earl of Ulster was a son of the first, and not of the second marriage. , THE EARLDOM OF ULSTER. Furthermore, the title of Earl of Ulster did not pass to Walter de Burgh by marriage with an heiress of de Lacy That title reverted to the Crown when Hugo de Lacy (the second) died in 1243. A fresh grant was made to Walter de Burgh in the year 1246. The mother of Richard de Burgh, the Red Earl, was not a de Lacy, but Avelina, daughter of John Fitz-Geoffrey. These historic facts are clearly set out in Orpen's "Ireland Under the Normans" (Vol. 11l pp. 265-7). From the discussion it emerges that if the King is not descended from Roderick O'Connor, he is certainly descended from the de Burghs, a house which exerted a fuller degree of personal authority in Connaught than did any king of purely native race. In the same discussion another Irish royal ancestor is claimed for him by "K.," who says that "King George is descended from King Dermo.d MacMurrough, whose . daughter Eva. Strongbow's wife, had only one child, Isabel, who was married to William Maxfield, Earl Marshal of England, whose five sons died without . issue, but' from whose five daughters many great families descended—among others, both the Mortimers and the de Burghs."