Honora Burke

Lady Honora Burke ((c. 1675 – 1698), married Patrick Sarsfield and went with him into French exile, where she then married James FitzJames, 1st Duke of Berwick, an illegitimate son of James II.

Honora Burke
Duchess of Berwick
Born	c. 1675 Portumna Castle
Died	16 January 1698 Pézenas, Languedoc, France
Spouse(s)	Patrick Sarsfield, 1st Earl of Lucan James, 1st Duke of Berwick
Detail Issue James Sarsfield; James, 2nd Duke of Berwick

Birth and origins

Honora was born about 1675 at Portumna Castle, County Galway.[1] She was the youngest child of William Burke and his second wife, Helen MacCarty. Her father was William Burke, 7th Earl of Clanricarde. The Burkes (originally De Burgh) were an Old English family long-established in western Ireland. Her mother was a daughter of Donough MacCarty, 1st Earl of Clancarty, and thus part of the traditional Gaelic aristocracy. She had previously been married to Sir John Fitzgerald of Dromana.[2] Honora was raised as a Roman Catholic. She was often called Honora de Burgh during this period.[1]

Honora listed among her siblings

She appears below at the bottom of the list of siblings as the youngest: Ulick (1670–1691), created Viscount of Galway and slain at the Battle of Aughrim fighting for the Jacobites;[3][lower-alpha 1] Margaret (1673–1744), first married Bryan Magennis, 5th Viscount of Iveagh and then Thomas Butler of Garryricken;[4][lower-alpha 1] William, died childless in France;[5][lower-alpha 1] Honora (c. 1675 – 1698).

Honora's half-siblings
Half-siblings from her father's first marriage were:[6] Richard (died after 1708), became the 8th Earl of Clanricarde;[7] John (1642–1722), became the 9th Earl of Clanricarde.[8] and Thomas (died 1688), killed at the Siege of Buda, Hungary;[9][lower-alpha 1][lower-alpha 2][10]

Family tree

Honora Burke with her two husbands, her parents, and other selected relatives. Sir William Burke Donough 1st Earl Clancarty 1594–1665 Eleanor Butler 1612–1682 William Burke 7th Earl Clanricarde d. 1687 Helen MacCarty d. 1722 Justin MacCarthy Viscount Mount- cashel d. 1694 Ulick d. 1691 Margaret d. 1744 Patrick Sarsfield 1st Earl Lucan 1655–1693 Honora Burke c. 1675 – 1698 James FitzJames 1st Duke Berwick 1670–1734 James Sarsfield 2nd Earl Lucan 1693–1719 James Fitz-James Stuart 2nd Duke Berwick 1696–1738 Legend XXX Honora Burke XXX Peers of various kinds First husband on the left, second on the right. Also see the lists of siblings and children in the text.

Early life

Her father died in 1687[11] and was succeeded by her half-brother Richard as the 8th Earl of Clanricarde. Honora inherited a fortune of £3,500 from her father.[12][13]

Her mother married thirdly, sometime between 1687 and 1700, to Colonel Thomas Burke.[14] The marriage seems to have been childless.

First marriage

On 9 January 1689 Honora married Patrick Sarsfield in Portumna Abbey.[15][16] The couple went to live is Sarsfield's house at Lucan near Dublin.[15] Sarsfield was at that time the eldest living son of a landowner from County Kildare and an experienced soldier, serving in the Irish Army of James II during the Williamite War in Ireland.[17]

Sarsfield rose rapidly to become one of the leaders of the Jacobite movement in Ireland, noted in particular for the Ballyneety Raid on King William's artillery train shortly before the Siege of Limerick (1690).[18] In January 1691 James II ennobled him for this achievement making him the 1st Earl of Lucan.[19] She therefore became Countess of Lucan. After the surrender of Limerick following a second siege in 1691, Sarsfield led the defeated Irish Army to France to continue serving the exiled James II, an event known as the Flight of the Wild Geese. Honora had probably left for France a year earlier with other Jacobite ladies.[20] In 1692 he participated in a failed plan to invade England. On 29 July 1693 Sarsfield was mortally wounded at the Battle of Landen[21] and died shortly afterwards at Huy.[22]

Her marriage with Sarsfield produced two children:

1. James (1693–1719), who became the 2nd Earl of Lucan and took part in the planned 1719 Jacobite Rising in Ireland, but died of natural causes shortly afterwards.[23]
2. A daughter, probably called Catherine, as she has been confused with Catalina Sarsfield.

It is occasionally suggested that the Catalina Sarsfield who married a German adventurer who briefly established himself as King Theodore of Corsica, was a daughter of Honora and her first husband.[24] In fact Catalina (the Spanish form of Catherine) came from a different branch of the Sarsfield family, from County Limerick and was born in Nantes to David Sarsfield, a distant cousin of Patrick.[25]

English portrait of Honora de Burke

Second marriage

The widowed Honora, now living at the Jacobite court-in-exile at Saint-Germain near Paris, met James FitzJames, 1st Duke of Berwick and fell in love with him. Berwick was the illegitimate son of James II and Arabella Churchill, and took up a military career at an early age. He had served alongside Sarsfield in Ireland. They married on 26 March 1695 in the chapel of the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye.[26] making her the Duchess of Berwick. The King was not overjoyed at the marriage, as he had wanted his son to make a grander match that might help the Jacobite cause.[27] In that same year her husband was attainted in England and therefore lost, at least officially, his title.[28] However, she and her husband continued to use the title and were generally known as the Duke and Duchess of Berwick. Saint-Simon, for example calls him so in 1698.[29]

With Berwick she produced a son:

• James (1696–1738), who served in the Spanish Army and founded a dynasty in that country.[30]

Death and timeline

She died at the age of twenty-four on 16 January 1698[31][32] of consumption,[29] leaving her husband in "great grief". She was buried in Pontoise.[33]

Timeline
As her birth date is uncertain, so are all her ages.
Age	Date	Event
0	1675, about	Born at Portumna Castle.[1]
12	1687, Oct	Father died.[11]
14	1689, 9 Jan	Married Sarsfield at Portumna Abbey.[17][15]
14	1689, 12 March	King James II lands at Kinsale.[34]
16	1691, Jan	Became Countess of Lucan as Sarsfield is created Earl of Lucan by James II.[19]
16	1691, 12 Jul	Brother Ulick slain at the Battle of Aughrim.[3]
18	1693, 29 Jul	1st husband mortally wounded at the Battle of Landen.[21]
20	1695, 9 Jan	Married 2ndly Berwick at Saint-Germain-en-Laye and became Duchess of Berwick.[27]
20	1695	2nd husband attainted in England.[28]
21	1696, 21 Oct	Birth of her son James.[30]
23	1698, 16 Jan	Died at Pézenas, Languedoc, France.[32][29]

Notes and references

1. Lodge by error ignores Clanricarde's second marriage to Helen and lists all the children as born by Lettice Shirley, his first wife.
2. There probably is some error here as the siege of Buda was in 1686.

1. Burke 2005, p. 21, line 19: "Honora de Burgh was born C 1675 at Portumna Castle, Co. Galway."
2. Cokayne 1913, p. 233, line 2: "He [Clanricarde] m. 2ndly Helen, widow of sir John FITZGERALD, of Dromana, co. Waterford (who d. 1662), da. of Donough (MACCARTY), 1st EARL of CLANCARTY [I.] by Eleanor ..."
3. Lodge 1789, p. 138, line 13: "Ulick, created by privy seal, dated at Whitehall, 9 May, and by patent 2 June 1687, baron of Tyaquin in the co. of Galway, and Viscount of Galway; was a nobleman of true courage and endowed with many good qualities; he commanded a regiment of foot in K. James's army; and in that station was killed at Aghrim, 12 July 1691, being not full 22 years old."
4. Lodge 1789, p. 138, line 27: "Margaret, born in 1673 and married first in 1689 to Bryan Viscount Magennis, of Iveagh who dying in 1692, she remarried in 1696 with Thomas Butler of Kilcash in the co. of Tipperary, Esq.; where she died his widow, 19 July, 1744."
5. Lodge 1789, p. 138, line 26: "William died in his minority in France."
6. Debrett 1828, p. 643: "RICHARD, 6th earl, who also d. without issue, and was succeeded by his brother WILLIAM, 7th earl, father of RICHARD, 8th earl (who died without issue) and JOHN, 9th earl, who d. 17 October 1722, leaving issue."
7. Cokayne 1913, p. 233: "8. RICHARD (BOURKE), EARL OF CLANRICARDE & [I.], s. and h. by 1st wife. He conformed to the established Church in or before 1681."
8. Cokayne 1913, p. 234: "9. JOHN (BOURKE), EARL OF CLANRICARDE & [I.], br. and h. male by full blood. He was born 1642 ..."
9. Lodge 1789, p. 138, line 11: "Thomas, who was killed in 1688 at the siege of Buda, in Hungary, then possessed by the Turks ..."
10. Burke 1869, p. 228, left column, line 6: "Thomas, killed at Buda."
11. Cokayne 1913, p. 233, line 5a: "He [Clanricarde] d. Oct. 1687."
12. Hardy 1913, p. 14: "... the late Earl of Clanricarde bequeathed to his daughter, Lady Honor Burke, who since married Colonel Sarsfield, the sum of 3,500l by his last will and testament, which is forfeited to the King by her marriage with the said Patrick Sarsfield ..."
13. "William III: January 1696 Pages 1-33 Calendar of State Papers Domestic: William III, 1696. Originally published by His Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1913". British History Online.
14. Cokayne 1913, p. 233, line 5b: "His [Clanricarde's] widow m. 3rdly before 1 Feb. 1699/1700, Thomas BOURKE, who died between 29 May 1718 and 5 Dec. 1720."
15. Burke 2005, p. 21, line 32: "Honora married (1) Patrick Sarsfield at Portumna Abbey 9th Jan 1689, age just 16 years, after heir marriage, Honora and Patrick went to live at Sarsfield's house in Lucan, Dublin."
16. Ruvigny 1904, p. 81, last line: "He [Sarsfield married Lady Honora, second daughter of William (Bourke) seventh Earl of Clanricarde [I.], by his second wife, Lady Ellen, daughter of Donough (MacCarty), first Earl of Clancarty [I.]."]
17. Lodge 1789, p. 138, line 32: "Lady Honora (first married to Patrick Sarsfield, Earl of Lucan, who was killed in the battle of Landen, 29 July, 1693, by whom she had one son who died without issue in Flanders ..."
18. Wauchope 2004, p. 965, left column: "... in the early hours of 12 August 1690, he attacked the siege train while it camped at Ballyneety, near Cullen, co. Tipperary, some 12 miles from Limerick."
19. Ruvigny 1904, p. 81, line 18: "He greatly distinguished him at the first siege of Limerick in August 1690 and in reward was created by King James, January 1690/91 ... EARL OF LUCAN."
20. Wauchope 2004, p. 966, right column: "... had been evacuated to France during the war in Ireland before being joined by her husband in early 1692 at the Jacobite court in exile at St Germain-en-Laye."
21. Todhunter 1895, p. 202, line 1: "It was in the last charge that Sarsfield, at the head of the flower of French cavalry (no Irish regiment being engaged), as he drove the enemy down to the river, was struck by a musket ball in the breast, and fell."
22. Todhunter 1895, p. 202, line 9: "He was carried from the field to the village of Huy, where he died in a few days, of the fever induced by his wound."
23. Todhunter 1895, p. 202, line 19: "He [James Sarsfield] died, without issue, at St. Omer, May 12th, 1719."
24. Todhunter 1895, p. 202, line 23: "His daughter married Baron de Neuburg, styled King of Corsica."
25. Gasper 2013, p. 41: "Neuhoff's presentation to the king and queen of Spain had an unexpecyted consequence: one of the queen's maids of honour fell in love with him. She was Catalina Sarsfield, the daughter of David Sarsfield, an Irish Catholic exile who fought for Philip in Spain ..."
26. Handley 2004, p. 882, left column, line 32: "On 26 March 1695 Berwick married, in the royal chapel at St Germain-en-Laye, Honora Sarsfield, née Bourke ..."
27. Lodge 1789, p. 138, last line: "[Honora] secondly was married in the chapel of the Castle of St Germains, near Paris, in 1695, to James Fitz-James, Duke of Berwick, Marshal, Duke and Peer of France, eldest natural son of James II. by Arabella, sister to John Churchill Duke of Marlborough ..."
28. Burke 1866, p. 208, right column, line 43: "Marshal Berwick was attainted in 1695, when the dukedom of Berwick and his minor English honours became FORFEITED."
29. Saint-Simon 1879, p. 24: "Le duc de Berwick perdit en même temps [1698] une très aimable femme qu'il avoit épousée par amour, et qui avoit très bien réussi à la cour et à Saint-Germain ... Elle était à la première fleur de son âge, belle, touchante, faite à peindre, une nymphe."
30. FitzJames 1778, p. 153, footnote: "Il m'en reste un fils qui naquit le 21 octobre 1696 ..."
31. Handley 2004, p. [https://archive.org/details/oxforddictionary19matt/page/882/ 882, left column, last line: "On 16 January 1698 his wife died of consumption at Pézenas in Languedoc;"
32. FitzJames 1778, p. 153, line 11: "Ma femme ... mourut au mois de Janvier de cette année [1698] ..."
33. Handley 2004, p. [https://archive.org/details/oxforddictionary19matt/page/882/ 882, right column, line 1: "... she was buried at Pontoise."
34. Witherow 1879, p. 55, line 21: "On Tuesday the 12th of March, King James arrived at Kinsale from France ..."

• Burke, Bernard (1866), A Genealogical History of the Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited and Extinct Peerages of the British Empire (New ed.), London: Harrison
• Burke, Bernard (1869), A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire (31st ed.), London: Harrison (for Clanricarde)
• Burke, Jim (2005), A History Of Burke in Ireland – Jim Burke!
• Cokayne, George Edward (1913), Gibbs, Vicary (ed.), The complete peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct, or dormant, 3 (2nd ed.), London: St Catherine Press – Canonteign to Cutts (for Clancarty and Clanricarde)
• Debrett, John (1828), Peerage of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, 2 (17th ed.), London: F. C. and J. Rivington – Scotland and Ireland
• FitzJames, James FitzJames, the Duke of Berwick (1778), Mémoires du Maréchal de Berwick (in French), 1, Paris: Moutard
• Gasper, Julia (2013), Theodore Von Neuhoff, King of Corsica: The Man Behind the Legend, Newark, Delaware: University of Delaware Press, ISBN 978-1-61149-440-2
• Handley, Stuart (2004), "FitzJames, James (1650/51–1712)", in Matthew, Colin; Harrison, Brian (eds.), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 19, New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 881–884, ISBN 0-19-861369-5
• Hardy, William John (1913), Calendar of the State Papers, Domestic Series, of the Reign of William III. 1 January—31 December 1696, London: His Majesty's Stationery Office
• Lodge, John (1789), The Peerage of Ireland, 1, Dublin: James Moore - Blood royal, dukes, earls (for Clanricarde)
• Ruvigny, Melville Henry, Marquis de (1904), Jacobite Peerage Baronetage Knightage and Grants of Honour, Edinburgh: T C & E C Jack
• Saint-Simon, Louis de Rouvroy, duc de (1879), Boislisle, Arthur de (ed.), Mémoires du duc de Saint-Simon (in French), 5 (2 ed.), Paris: Hachette – 1698
• Todhunter, John (1895), Life of Patrick Sarsfield, Earl of Lucan, London: T. Fisher Unwin
• Wauchope, Piers (2004), "Sarsfield, Patrick, Jacobite first earl of Lucan (d. 1693)", in Matthew, Colin; Harrison, Brian (eds.), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 48, New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 993–996, ISBN 0-19-861398-9
• Witherow, Thomas (1879), Derry and Enniskillen in the Year 1689, London & Belfast: William Mallan & Son

External links

• Genealogy of Lady Honora Bourke on The Peerage website