Maud of Lancaster, Countess of Ulster

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Maud of Lancaster
Countess of Ulster
Lady de Ufford
Bornc. 1310
Died5 May 1377 (aged about 67)
Bruisyard Abbey,
Maud de Ufford, Countess of Oxford
FatherHenry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster
MotherMaud Chaworth
Armorial of Plantagenet
Henry, 3rd Earl

Maud of Lancaster, Countess of Ulster (c. 1310 – 5 May 1377) was an English noblewoman and the wife of

Maud de Ufford, Countess of Oxford. After Ufford's death, Maud became a canoness at an Augustinian nunnery, Campsey Priory, in Suffolk
.

Family and early life

Maud was born in about 1310,[

Henry of Grosmont, 1st Duke of Lancaster. His daughter was Blanche of Lancaster, who would in 1359 become the first wife of John of Gaunt, and in 1367 the mother of the future King Henry IV of England
.

Maud's mother died in 1322, when Maud was twelve years old.

Marriages and Issue

In 1327, Maud married her first husband,

dispensation for their marriage, which was dated 1 May 1327. Maud went to live in Ireland with her husband. Together they had one daughter who was born at Carrickfergus Castle in Belfast
:

  • Philippa Plantagenet, 5th Countess of Ulster
    .

In June 1333, Maud's husband was murdered, near Carrickfergus.[1] After his murder, which sparked a civil war in Ireland, Maud fled to England with her infant daughter, who was the suo jure Countess of Ulster, and they lived at the court of King Edward III with the royal family. Due to her knowledge of Irish affairs, she had considerable influence in the appointment of Irish officials.

Maud married her second husband, Sir Ralph de Ufford, by 8 August 1343. Sir Ralph was the youngest son of Robert de Ufford, Lord Ufford, and Cecily de Valognes. In 1344, he was appointed Justiciar of Ireland, therefore Maud accompanied him in July of that year to Ireland, where she had another daughter:

  • Robert de Vere, 9th Earl of Oxford, Duke of Ireland and Marquess of Dublin
    .

Maud's husband was an incompetent Justiciar, thoroughly despised by the Irish; under his badly managed administration, the civil war that was waged between the

Desmond and de Burgh families was at its height. He was summoned before Parliament to answer for his misdeeds, and for the incessant quarrels and skirmishes permitted under his government between the Anglo-Norman noblemen.[2]

Religious life

Following the death of Ralph de Ufford on 9 April 1346 at Kilmainham, Maud once again returned to England. On a date between 8 August 1347 and 25 April 1348, she became a canoness at the Augustinian Campsey Priory in Suffolk. In 1364, she transferred to the Poor Clares at Bruisyard Abbey. She died there on 5 May 1377 at the age of about sixty-seven years. She was buried in Bruisyard Abbey.

Ancestry

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Frame 2004.
  2. ^ Eleanor Hull, A History of Ireland: The Statutes of Kilkenny, accessed 4 November 2009
  3. ^ a b c d e Weir 2008, p. 76.
  4. ^ a b Weir 2008, p. 77.
Works cited
  • Frame, Robin (2004). "Matilda of Lancaster, countess of Ulster (d. 1377)".
    doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/50027. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  • ISBN 978-0-09-953973-5
    .
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