Richard Burke, 4th Earl of Clanricarde (also Richard de Burgh) (1572 – 12 November 1635) was an Irish nobleman. He was the son of Ulick Burke, 3rd Earl of Clanricarde

Ulick Burke, 3rd Earl of Clanricarde

Ulick Burke, 3rd Earl of Clanricarde, Irish peer, died 1601. He was the son of Richard Burke, 2nd Earl of Clanricarde and Margaret O'Brien. He married Honora Burke, daughter of John Burke, on 25 November 1564 at Anthenry, County Galway, Ireland....

 and Honora Burke, daughter of John Burke.

He actively served Queen Elizabeth against the hostile Irish and their Spanish allies. He was appointed governor of Connaught

Lord President of Connaught

The Lord President of Connaught was a military leader with wide-ranging powers, reaching into the civil sphere, in the English government of Connaught in Ireland, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.*1569-1572 Sir Edward Fitton...

, member of the privy council in Ireland, and, in 1624, created Viscount Tunbridge

Tonbridge

Tonbridge is a market town in the English county of Kent, with a population of 30,340 in 2007. It is located on the River Medway, approximately 4 miles north of Tunbridge Wells, 12 miles south west of Maidstone and 29 miles south east of London...

 and Baron of Somerhill

Somerhill House

Somerhill House is a Grade I listed Jacobean mansion situated near Tonbridge, Kent, United Kingdom. It was built for Richard de Burgh in 1611–13. The estate was sequestrated by Parliament in 1645, and restored to its rightful owner in 1660. The building had become derelict by the mid-eighteenth...

, a manor which he owned in Kent. The titles of Viscount Galway and Earl of St. Albans were conferred on him in 1628. The treatment which he experienced from the lord deputy, Thomas Wentworth

Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford

Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford was an English statesman and a major figure in the period leading up to the English Civil War. He served in Parliament and was a supporter of King Charles I. From 1632 to 1639 he instituted a harsh rule as Lord Deputy of Ireland...

, was said to have accelerated his death in November 1635.

In 1603, he married Frances Walsingham

Frances Walsingham

Frances Walsingham, Countess of Essex and Countess of Clanricarde was an English noblewoman. The daughter of Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth I's Secretary of State, she became the wife of Sir Philip Sidney at age 14. Her second husband was Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, Queen Elizabeth's...

, the widow of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex

Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex

Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, KG was an English nobleman and a favourite of Elizabeth I. Politically ambitious, and a committed general, he was placed under house arrest following a poor campaign in Ireland during the Nine Years' War in 1599...

. They had one son, Ulick, and two daughters, Honora, who became Marchioness of Winchester, and Mary, wife of Hon. Edward Butler of Ballinahinch. He was succeeded by his son and heir, Ulick

Ulick

Ulick is a masculine given name in the English language. It is an Anglicised form of the Irish Uilleac and Uilleag. These Irish names are of an uncertain origin, although they are thought most probably to be derived from the Old Norse Hugleikr...

, as 5th Earl of Clanricarde

Earl of Clanricarde

Earl of Clanricarde is a title that has been created twice in the Peerage of Ireland, first in 1543 and again in 1800. The former creation became extinct in 1916 while the 1800 creation is still extant and held by the Marquess of Sligo since 1916....

, who in 1622 had married Lady Anne Compton, only daughter of William Compton, 1st Earl of Northampton

William Compton, 1st Earl of Northampton

William Compton, 1st Earl of Northampton, KG , known as 2nd Baron Compton from 1589 to 1618, was an English peer.Northampton was the son of Henry Compton, 1st Baron Compton, and Frances Hastings. His maternal grandparents were Francis Hastings, 2nd Earl of Huntingdon and Catherine Pole...

.