Europe · High and late Middle Ages
Earldom of Ulster
drawn on the map 1326–1332
The Earldom of Ulster was the Anglo-Norman lordship in north-east Ireland created during the invasion of Ireland. John de Courcy conquered eastern Ulster from 1177, building Carrickfergus Castle and founding the earldom; he was styled Earl of Ulster (by patent traditionally dated 1181) and ruled semi-independently.
- Shown on the map
- 1326–1332
- Peak area
- 2k km²
- Region
- Europe
Foundation
The Earldom of Ulster was the Anglo-Norman lordship in north-east Ireland created during the invasion of Ireland. John de Courcy conquered eastern Ulster from 1177, building Carrickfergus Castle and founding the earldom; he was styled Earl of Ulster (by patent traditionally dated 1181) and ruled semi-independently. Falling foul of King John, he was warred upon by Hugh de Lacy (younger son of the Lord of Meath), who expelled de Courcy (1203) and captured him (1204); John then created Hugh de Lacy 1st Earl of Ulster (1205), granting him de Courcy's lands. De Lacy extended the conquest across modern Antrim and Down and parts of Derry, but died without legitimate heirs in 1242/3.
The de Burghs and decline
The earldom passed to the de Burgh family (Walter de Burgh, earl from 1263). It reached its height under Richard Óg de Burgh, the "Red Earl." Edward Bruce's invasion (1315–18) — the brother of Robert the Bruce, briefly crowned High King of Ireland — devastated the earldom before Bruce was killed at Faughart (1318). The last de Burgh earl, William Donn de Burgh, the "Brown Earl," was murdered in 1333; his lands fragmented, much of the earldom reverting to Gaelic Irish control (the O'Neills), while the title passed through his heiress ultimately to the English Crown.
Common questions
- What was the Earldom of Ulster?
- The Earldom of Ulster was the Anglo-Norman lordship in north-east Ireland created during the invasion of Ireland. John de Courcy conquered eastern Ulster from 1177, building Carrickfergus Castle and founding the earldom; he was styled Earl of Ulster (by patent traditionally dated 1181) and ruled semi-independently.
- When is the Earldom of Ulster shown on the map?
- The border data draws the Earldom of Ulster 1326–1332. The source samples borders at fixed dates, so a span can begin late or run on past the end.
- How large was the Earldom of Ulster?
- At its greatest extent drawn on this map, the Earldom of Ulster covered about 2,000 km². That is the largest area the border data gives it across the years it is drawn, not necessarily its greatest extent in history.
Sources
This compendium cites its sources once for the whole document rather than per territory. Its bibliography names the English Wikipedia articles for each kingdom as the primary basis, with Encyclopædia Britannica, the World History Encyclopedia, national heritage bodies (Historic Environment Wales and Scotland, the Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust), museum sources and the Dictionary of Irish Biography, read against the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Bede and the Irish annals with their own biases. The article this entry is anchored on:
- Wikipedia — Earldom of Ulster en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earldom_of_Ulster
This entry was last updated .
This entry was researched and drafted with AI from the sources above, and has not been reviewed by a historian. How entries are made
Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.
Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).
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