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Honora Burke

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Honora Burke
Duchess of Berwick
Portrait
Bornc. 1674
Portumna Castle
Died16 January 1698
Pézenas, Languedoc, France
Spouse(s)
Issue
Detail		James Sarsfield; 2nd Duke of Berwick

Lady Honora Burke (1674–1698), styled at different times as Honora Sarsfield, Countess of Lucan and Honora FitzJames, Duchess of Berwick, was an Irish aristocrat of the late seventeenth century.

Birth and origins

Honora was born about 1674 at Portumna Castle, County Galway.[1] She was the youngest child of William Burke and his second wife, Helen MacCarty. Her father was the 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. Sh 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.

She appears below at the bottom of the list of siblings as the youngest:

  1. Ulick (1670–1691), created Viscount of Galway and slain at the Battle of Aughrim fighting for the Jacobites;[3][a]
  2. Margaret (1673–1744), first married Bryan Magennis, 5th Viscount of Iveagh and then Thomas Butler of Garryricken;[4][a]
  3. William, died childless in France;[5][a]
  4. Honora (1674–1698), the subject of this article.

Half-siblings from her father's first marriage were:[6]

  1. Richard (died after 1708), became the 8th Earl of Clanricarde;[7]
  2. John (1642–1722), became the 9th Earl of Clanricarde.[8] and
  3. Thomas (died 1688), killed at the Siege of Buda, Hungary;[9][a][b][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
1674–1698		James
FitzJames
1st Duke
Berwick
1670–1734
James
Sarsfield
2nd Earl
Lucan
1693–1719		James
Fitz-James
Stuart
2nd Duke
Berwick
1696–1738
Legend
XXXHonora
Burke		XXXPeers of
various kinds
First husband on the left, second on the right. Also see the lists of siblings and children in the text.

Her father died in 1687[11] and was succeeded by her half-brother Richard as the 8th Earl of Clanricarde. Her mother married thirdly sometime between 1687 and 1700, to Colonel Thomas Burke. The marriage was childless.[12]

First marriage

On 9 January 1689 she married Patrick Sarsfield in Portumna Abbey.[13][14] Sarsfield was an experienced soldier now serving in the Irish Army of James II during the Williamite War in Ireland.[15]

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).[16] In January 1691 James II ennobled him for this achievement making him the 1st Earl of Lucan.[17] 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.[18] In 1692 he participated in a failed plan to invade England. On 29 July 1693 Sarsfield was mortally wounded at the Battle of Landen [19] and died shortly afterwards at Huy.[20]

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.[21]
  2. A daughter, probably called Catherine.

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.[22] In fact Catalina 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.

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.[23] 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.[24] In that same year her husband was attainted in England and therefore lost, at least officially, his title.[25] 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.[26]

With Berwick she produced a son:

  • James (1696–1738), who served in the Spanish Army and founded a dynasty in that country.[27]

Death and timeline

She died at the age of twenty-four on 16 January 1698 of consumption, leaving her husband in "great grief".[28][29] [26] She was buried in Pontoise.[30]

Timeline
Age Date Event
0 1674, about Born at Portumna Castle.[1]
12–13 1687, Oct Father died.[11]
14–15 1689, 9 Jan Married Sarsfield at Portumna Abbey.[15]
47–48 1689, 13 Feb Accession of William and Mary, replacing King James II.[31]
16–17 1691, Jan Became Countess of Lucan as Sarsfield is created Earl of Lucan by James II.[17]
18–19 1693, 29 Jul 1st husband mortally wounded at the Battle of Landen.[19]
20–21 1695, 9 Jan Married 2ndly Berwick at Saint-Germain-en-Laye and became Duchess of Berwick.
20–21 1695 2nd husband attainted in England.[25]
21–22 1696, 21 Oct Birth of her son James.
23–24 1698, 16 Jan Died at Pézenas.[29][26]

Notes and references

  1. ^ a b c d 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. ^ a b 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. ^ a b Cokayne 1913, p. 233, line 5a: "He [Clanricarde] d. Oct. 1687."
  12. ^ 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."
  13. ^ Burke 2005, p. 21, line 32: "Honora married (1) Patrick Sarsfield at Portumna Abbey 9th Jan 1689 ..."
  14. ^ 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.]."]
  15. ^ a b 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 ..."
  16. ^ 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."
  17. ^ a b 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."
  18. ^ 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."
  19. ^ a b 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."
  20. ^ 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."
  21. ^ Todhunter 1895, p. 202, line 19: "He [James Sarsfield] died, without issue, at St. Omer, May 12th, 1719."
  22. ^ Todhunter 1895, p. 202, line 23: "His daughter married Baron de Neuburg, styled King of Corsica."
  23. ^ 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 ..."
  24. ^ 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 ..."
  25. ^ a b 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."
  26. ^ a b c 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."
  27. ^ FitzJames 1778, p. 153, footnote: "Il m'en reste un fils qui naquit le 21 octobre 1696 ..."
  28. ^ 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;"
  29. ^ a b FitzJames 1778, p. 153, line 11: "Ma femme ... mourut au mois de Janvier de cette année [1698] ..."
  30. ^ Handley 2004, p. [https://archive.org/details/oxforddictionary19matt/page/882/ 882, right column, line 1: "... she was buried at Pontoise."
  31. ^ Smyth 1839, p. xiii, line 21: "William and Mary . [Accession] 13 February, 1689"
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