ABSTRACT
The ground was already cleared for the rise of lesser men, now that the earls of Meath, Ulster, and Pembroke had passed out. Geraldines, Butlers and De Burgos were henceforth to become the chiefs of the Englishry, and in the weakness of the central government the ‘great design’ of completing the conquest of Ireland was taken in hand by the feudal princes. The chief of these was Maurice Fitzgerald, second Baron of Offaly, who for the moment had no De Burgo rival because Richard, son of the Richard who died in 1243, also died after a few years in 1248, and his brother Walter did not obtain seisin till 1250.
