On 17 Sep 1312 William Donn Burgh 3rd Earl Ulster was born to John Burgh (age 26) and Elizabeth Clare Lady Verdun (age 17). He a great grandson of King Edward I of England.

On 18 Jun 1313 [his father] John Burgh (age 27) died.

On 04 Feb 1316 [his step-father] Theobald Verdun 2nd Lord Verdun (age 37) and [his mother] Elizabeth Clare Lady Verdun (age 20) were married. She by marriage Lord Verdun. She the daughter of [his grandfather] Gilbert "Red Earl" Clare 7th Earl Gloucester 6th Earl Hertford and [his grandmother] Joan of Acre Countess Gloucester and Hertford. They were third cousins. She a granddaughter of King Edward I of England.

Before 03 May 1317 [his step-father] Roger Damory 1st Baron Damory and [his mother] Elizabeth Clare Lady Verdun (age 21) were married. She the daughter of [his grandfather] Gilbert "Red Earl" Clare 7th Earl Gloucester 6th Earl Hertford and [his grandmother] Joan of Acre Countess Gloucester and Hertford. She a granddaughter of King Edward I of England.

On 29 Jul 1326 [his grandfather] Richard "Red Earl" Burgh 2nd Earl Ulster (age 67) died at Altassel Priory. His grandson William Donn Burgh 3rd Earl Ulster (age 13) succeeded 3rd Earl Ulster.

On 16 Nov 1327 William Donn Burgh 3rd Earl Ulster (age 15) and Maud Plantagenet Countess Ulster (age 17) were married. She by marriage Countess Ulster. She the daughter of Henry Plantagenet 3rd Earl of Leicester 3rd Earl Lancaster (age 46) and Maud Chaworth. They were second cousin once removed. He a great grandson of King Edward I of England. She a great granddaughter of King Henry III of England.

On 10 Dec 1327 William Donn Burgh 3rd Earl Ulster (age 15) was summoned to Parliament as Baron Burgh.

Around 1328 [his brother-in-law] Henry of Grosmont 1st Duke Lancaster (age 18) and Isabel Beaumont Duchess Lancaster (age 8) were married. She the daughter of Henry Beaumont Earl Buchan (age 49) and Alice Comyn Baroness Beaumont. He the son of [his father-in-law] Henry Plantagenet 3rd Earl of Leicester 3rd Earl Lancaster (age 47) and Maud Chaworth. They were fourth cousins. He a great grandson of King Henry III of England. She a great x 4 granddaughter of King Henry I "Beauclerc" England.

On 06 Nov 1330 John Beaumont 2nd Baron Beaumont (age 12) and [his sister-in-law] Eleanor Plantagenet Countess Arundel and Surrey (age 12) were married. She the daughter of [his father-in-law] Henry Plantagenet 3rd Earl of Leicester 3rd Earl Lancaster (age 49) and Maud Chaworth. He the son of Henry Beaumont Earl Buchan (age 51) and Alice Comyn Baroness Beaumont. They were fourth cousins. He a great x 4 grandson of King Henry I "Beauclerc" England. She a great granddaughter of King Henry III of England.

In Feb 1332 Walter Liath de Burgh starved to death whilst imprisoned by his cousin William Donn Burgh 3rd Earl Ulster (age 19). Walter's sister Gylle de Burgh planned William's assassination in revenge.

On 06 Jul 1332 [his daughter] Elizabeth Burgh Duchess of Clarence was born to William Donn Burgh 3rd Earl Ulster (age 19) and [his wife] Maud Plantagenet Countess Ulster (age 22) at Carrickfergus Castle, Carrickfergus, County Antrim. She a great x 2 granddaughter of King Henry III of England.

Annals of Ulster 1333. 06 Jun 1333. William Burke, Earl of Ulster (age 20)², was killed by the English of Ulster. The Englishmen who committed this deed were put to death, in divers ways, by the people of the King of England; some were hanged, others killed, and others torn asunder², in revenge of his death.

Note 1. Earl of Ulster. There is a much more circumstantial account of the death of this Earl of Ulster given by Pembridge and Grace under this year. Lodge gives the following particulars of it: "He was murdered on Sunday, June 6, 1333, by Robert Fitz-Richard Mandeville (who gave him his first wound), and others his servants, near to the Fords, in going towards Carrickfergus, in the 21 st year of his age, at the instigation, as was said, of Gyle de Burgh, wife of Sir Richard Mandeville, in revenge for his having imprisoned her brother Walter and others."

This young earl left an only child, [his daughter] Elizabeth, who was married in the year 1352 to [his future son-in-law] Lionel, third son of King Edward III., and this prince was then created, in her right, Earl of Ulster and Lord of Connaught, and these titles were enjoyed through marriage or descent by different princes of the royal blood, until at length, in the person of Edward IV, they became the special inheritance and revenue of the crown of England. Immediately on the Earl's death the chiefs of the junior branches of the family of Burke or De Burgo, then seated in Connaught, fearing the transfer of his possessions into strange hands by the marriage of the heiress, seized upon his estates in Connaught. The two most powerful of these were Sir William or Ulick, the ancestor of the Earls of Clanrickard, and Sir Edmund Albanagh the progenitor of the Viscounts of Mayo. These having confederated together and declared themselves independent, renounced the English dress and language, and adopted Irish names, Sir William taking the name of Mac William Oughter, or the Upper, and Sir Edmund that of Mac William Eighter, or the Lower. Under these names these two powerful chieftains tyranized over the entire province of Counaught, and though Lionel Duke of Clai'ence, in right of his wife, laid claim to their usurped possessions, the government apears to have been too weak to assert, the authority of the English laws, so that the territories of the Burkes were allowed to descend in course of tanistry and gavelkind. See Hardiman's History of Galway, pp. 56, 57.

Note 2. Torn asunder, i.e. torn limb from limb. Mageoghegan renders it "hanged, drawn, and quartered."

On 06 Jun 1333 William Donn Burgh 3rd Earl Ulster (age 20) was murdered by Richard de Mandeville in revenge for the murder of Richard's wife's brother Walter Liath de Burgh the year before. Baron Burgh extinct.

In or before 1345 Ralph Ufford (age 42) and [his former wife] Maud Plantagenet Countess Ulster (age 34) were married. She the daughter of [his former father-in-law] Henry Plantagenet 3rd Earl of Leicester 3rd Earl Lancaster (age 63) and Maud Chaworth. She a great granddaughter of King Henry III of England.

On 05 May 1377 [his former wife] Maud Plantagenet Countess Ulster (age 67) died at Bruisyard Abbey, Suffolk [Map]. She was buried at Bruisyard Abbey, Suffolk [Map].