Elizabeth de Burgh,[2] Duchess of Clarence, suo jure 4th Countess of Ulster and 5th Baroness of Connaught (6 July 1332 – 10 December 1363) was a Norman-Irish noblewoman who married Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence.

As Countess of Ulster, she was raised in England and married Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence, on 15 August 1352 at the Tower of London. He was the second son of Edward III of England and his queen consort, Philippa of Hainault.
As a boy, the poet Geoffrey Chaucer served as page to Elizabeth.[6]

" SUDBURY was at the time of the Domesday Survey returned as part of Thingoe Hundred, though it had no local connection with it, and is now part of the Hundred of Babergh. The town was parcel of the estate of Earl Morcar forfeited to the Conqueror. It was the land really of Alvera mother of Earl Morchar, and at the time of the Survey was in the hands of William the Chamberlain and Otho the goldsmith on behalf of the King. In the Confessor's time the demesne lands consisted of 3 carucates of land, with i villein, 63 burgesses, living at the Hall or Manor House, 6 serfs, 3 ploughteams in demesne, and 55 burgesses in demesne with 2 carucates of land. These had 4 ploughteams. There was also the Church of St. Gregory, with 50 acres of free land and 25 acres of meadow. Likewise a mill, 2 horses in demesne at the Hall, 17 beasts, 23 hogs, 100 sheep, and 8 acres of meadow in the borough, and one market and money coiners. The value of the whole was 18 pounds, which by the time of the Survey had risen to 28, but the only changes in the particulars from Saxon times was an extra villein and 4 serfs less. The length was 4 quarantenes, and the breadth 3, and it paid in a gelt 5 shillings. There was also a soc in the town. (See Bures Manor in this Hundred).

" In parcelling out the lands he had acquired, the Conqueror allotted the Manor of Sudbury with 94 manors besides in Suffolk to Richard Fitz Gilbert or de Clare afterwards Earl of Gloucester and Hertford. It formed portion of the great Honor of Clare and was held of the Crown as part of the Duchy of Lancaster. Richard Fitz Gilbert was joined with William de Warren in the important office of Justiciary of England in 1073.

He fixed his residence shortly before the Domesday Survey at Tunbridge in Kent and in the Survey is called "Ricardus de Tonebruge." He married Robesia daughter of Walter Gifford ist Earl of Buckingham and is said to have fallen in a skirmish with the Welsh, when the manor passed to his son Gilbert de Tonebruge.

He joined in the rebellion of Robert de Mowbray, Earl of Northumberland, but it is narrated that observing that his sovereign Wm. Rufus was about to fall into an ambush, he relented, warned the King, saved him, and was pardoned.

He married Adeliza daughter of the Earl of Claremont, and was succeeded by his eldest son Richard de Clare, Earl of Hertford. 2 He distinguished himself in the wars in Wales, and vastly increased his family possessions in those parts. He took to wife Alice sister of Ranulph de Gernon, 2nd Earl of Chester, and the manor passed on his being killed in Wales the 15 April 1136 to his son Gilbert de Clare 2nd Earl of Hertford. 3 Gilbert is called "Earl" of Clare in 1136.

This nobleman was a hostage for his uncle the Earl of Chester. In 1145 joining the rebellion in the time of Stephen he was taken prisoner, and confined until he had consented to relinquish his many strongholds. He died in 1152 without issue, and was succeeded by his brother Roger de Clare 3rd Earl of Hertford. In the time of Hen. II. this Roger was summoned by Thomas a Becket, the celebrated Archbp. of Canterbury to do homage to his Grace for the Castle of Toneburge, but at the command of the King he refused, alleging that "holding it by military service, it belonged rather to the Crown than to the Church." The Castle had been exchanged by Roger's great grand-father Richard, with the Archbp. of Canterbury, for the Castle of Brion. Roger de Clare was commander of the royal army against the Welsh in 1157, andmarriedist a daur. of Payne, Sheriff co. Salop, and andly Maude daughter of James de St. Hilary. On his death in 1173, the manor passed to his son Richard de Clare 4th Earl of Hertford, who married Amicia 2nd daughter and coheir of Wm. Fitz-Robert, Earl of Gloucester.

" It would seem that Sudbury, at least the town, was settled on this marriage, which was subsequently dissolved; for in the Abbreviation of Pleas i John we see a trial as to whether "Amice" formerly wife of Earl Richard de Clare, unjustly disseised Richard son of Wm. de Sudbury of a free tenement there ; and the defence of the Countess was that after the dissolution of her marriage with the Earl of Clare to whom the town of Sudbury was given as her marriage portion, she came to Sudbury, and summoned the said Richard to her Court.' It is a question whether the manor had not passed earlier out of the Clare family and become vested in the Earls of Gloucester, and only came back to the Clare family on this marriage ; in fact one is inclined to adopt this view, having regard to the entry in 1202, also in the Pleadings in the time of John, that the Countess held her Court at Sudbury, with reference to Richard son of Uluric, and Richard son of John as to lands there, 1 and to a claim in 1206 by the Countess of Clare to the advowson of St. Gregory, Sudbury, against the Prioress of Eton 3 who asserted that the same had been granted by William formerly Earl of Gloucester father of the said Countess to the nuns of the Church of Eton.

" The manor passed in 1217 to Gilbert de Clare 5th Earl of Hertford, created Earl of Gloucester. He was one of the principal barons who con- tended against King John and one of the 25 barons to enforce the provisions of the Great Charter. He married Isabel 3rd daughter and eventual coheir of Wm. Marshall, 1st Earl of Pembroke, and dying the 25 Oct. 1230 was succeeded by his son Richard de Clare, 6th Earl of Hertford and 2nd Earl of Gloucester, who being a minor was placed in wardship to Hubert de Burgh, Earl of Kent and Justiciary of England, whose daughter to the displeasure of the King, Richard de Clare clandestinely married. It is probable the marriage was dissolved, as immediately after this he was married to Maude, daughter of John de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, who for the sake of the valuable alliance paid to the Crown 5,000 marks and remitted a debt of 2,000 more.

" Richard was eminent alike in war and peace. He commanded the Royal Army in South Wales in 1257 an ^ was appointed on an embassy to the Pope, to Castille, to France, and to treat with the Duke of Bretagne in 1259. He died the 15 July 1262, having been poisoned at the table of Peter de Savoy, the queen's uncle, along with Baldwin Earl of Devon, and other persons of note. 5 The manor passed to his eldest son Gilbert de Clare 3rd Earl of Gloucester surnamed the Red. He was Steward of St. Edmund's Abbey in 1266, and married Alice daughter of Guy Earl of Angouleme and niece of the King of France, and received the honour of knighthood from Montford Earl of Leicester at the head of the army at Lewes where he held a command and where he had distinguished himself. Later he abandoned the baronial cause, and had an important command in the royal army at the Battle of Evesham. This nobleman was one of the first to proclaim King Edward then in Palestine as successor to the throne, and to entertain him with great magnificence at Tunbridge on his arrival. Gilbert de Clare obtained a divorce from his wife Alice, and married Joane of Acre 2nd daughter of King Edw. I., upon which marriage he gave up the inheritance of all his castles and manors to the King to dispose of as he thought best, and the King entailed them (after a life interest to Joane) on the Earl's issue by the said Joane, and in default upon her in fee should she survive her husband. He had, however, issue by her, a son Gilbert and 3 daughters, and died 1295, when the manor passed under the settlement to Joane for life. She subsequently married Ralph de Monthermer, but died in 1307, when Gilbert de Clare 4th Earl of Gloucester succeeded to the lordship. He is styled " Hereditary Steward of St. Edmund's Abbey," and held the appointment of Chief Guardian and Lieutenant of Scotland in 1308 and 1309, was one of the " Lords Ordainers of Reform " in 1310, and was Guardian and Lieutenant of England in 1311. He married Maud, daughter of Rich, de Burgh Earl of Ulster, and falling at the Battle of Bannockburn the 24 June 1314, leaving no issue, 1 the King granted to John de Chelmersford the wardship of the lands of the Earl. 2 The manor passed upon partition between the Earl's three sisters, to Elizabeth, who had married John de Burgh, son of Richard, Earl of Ulster, by whom she had issue William, Earl of Ulster, who married Maud sister of Henry Plantagenet, Duke of Lancaster, and left a daughter and heir, Elizabeth de Burgh, who married Lionel Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence, and died in 1369, leaving an only daughter Philippa Plantagenet, who married Edmund Mortimer, 3rd Earl of March, and through her the House of York derived its claim to the throne. She died in 1381, and was succeeded by her son and heir Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March. He was declared by Parliament, 9 Rich. II. [1385] to be heir to the Crown, by reason of his descent from Lionel Duke of Clarence. He married Alianore, daughter of Thomas Holland, Earl of Kent, sister of Thos. Duke of Surrey, and sister and coheir of Edmund, Earl of Kent, and was slain in battle in Ireland in I398. 3 The manor passed to his son Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March, who like his father had been at the time of his father's decease a minor of tender years. The custody of the youth was committed by the King to his son Henry Prince of Wales, but it seems that sufficient vigilance was not exercised, and he was stolen away by Lady de Spencer, but being discovered in Chittham woods he was afterwards guarded more warily. He was on the accession of Hen. VI. to the throne made Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and married Anne, daughter of Edmund Earl of Stafford, but died in 1424 without issue.

" In the Inquis. taken after his death will be found an extent of the town and fishery, 4 and in the same Inquisition is included the advowson of the chapel of St. Sepulchre 305. per an. The manor passed to the last Earl's nephew Richard Plantagenet Duke of York, son of his eldest sister Anne married to Richard Plantagenet Duke of Cambridge. His defeat and death at the Battle of Wakefield in 1460' when the ambitious projects of his house for a time received a check are facts well known. His eldest son by Cicely, daughter of Ralph Nevil Earl of West- moreland, after varying fortunes was finally established on the Throne as Edw. IV., and the manor became vested in the Crown where it remained for over 100 years. A fine was in 1511 levied of the manor and of the Manor of Woodhall in Sudbury by the King against Katherine Courteney, Countess of Devon, one of the daughters of Edw. IV., and Thomas Haward and Anne his wife, another dau. of Edw. IV. 1 Sudbury Manor is however mentioned in the Inquis. p.m. of Sir Richard Corbett, who died the 25 June 1524 leaving a son and heir Richard Corbett. 1 In 1577 Sir Nicholas Bacon claimed both Sudbury and Woodhall Manors under a grant from Edw. VI., and brought an action against John Skynner on behalf of the Corporation of Sudbury as to waifs and strays. 5 In 1597 a fine was levied of the manor by W. Reade and others against Michael Stanhope and others, 4 and in 1610 the manor was granted to Sir Robert Crane.

" Amongst the MSS (manuscripts). in the Cambridge University Library is a grant to Robert de Assheton of the custody during minority of the heir of Edward le Despenser of Sudbury Manor. 5 And in 1252 a grant of free warren in the manor was made to Ely Priory. 6 Court Rolls of the manor will be found in the Public Record Office for Edward II., III., Richard II., Hen. IV., V., VI., Edw. IV., V., Rich. III., Hen. VII., 7 and extracts from Court Rolls 16-35 Edw. III., 8 Hen. VII. 8 As to the Office of the Steward of this manor see State Papers I Hen. VIII. 222. In the State Papers 1540 it is stated that the King granted Sudbury Manor to Lady Anne of Cleves in consideration of her marriage with him.

" An action will be found amongst the Duchy of Lancaster Proceedings in 1590 in reference to the right of free fishing, &c., and the boundaries of the manor.

This was evidently a small manor carved out of the larger holding of the Earls of Gloucester. It seems to have been held as a separate manor by Gilbert de Clare who died in 1295, and passed on his death to his widow Joane of Acre. An extent of the manor is given in 1369 in the Inquis. p.m. of Lionel Duke of Clarence, and Elizabeth his wife," and also in 1398 in the Inquis. post mortem of Roger de Mortimer Earl of March." It seems to have devolved in the same way as the main manor, ultimately vesting in the Crown in the person of the Duke of York Edw. IV. In 1553 it was granted by the Crown to Sir John Clike, and two years later leased to Sir Edward Waldegrave, and the following year it was annexed by the King and Queen to the Duchy of Lancaster.

In 1577 it seems that Frances Pawlett claimed from Sir Edward Waldegrave as lessee against John Leyttle tenant of a water mill in Essex as to suit and soc to mills ;' and 2 years later Sir Nicholas Bacon Steward of Clare Manor brought an action against John Skynner Mayor of Sudbury and others as to profits of Court, Court Rolls and Evidences.

In 1589 an action was brought by Richard Frende in right of Sir Edward Waldegrave against Thomas Davye and others as to soc, suit and mulcture to two water corn mills and one fulling mill in this manor, 3 there was also a suit as to markets and fairs two years later, 4 and as to water corn mills again and land called Border mortgaged to Henry Freeman. 5
In 1609 tne manor was vested in Sir Robert Crane who died in 1642. By his will he gave to his eldest daughter Mary " all that my Manor of Woodhall Sudbury, all those three watermills, &c., in Sudbury, all that 27 acres of wood called King's Wood in Sudbury, &c., and also all other lands in Sudbury, Chilton and Acton which I purchased of our late Sovereign King Jac. I." in fee. Mary Crane married Sir Ralph Hare Bart, and by her marriage settlement dated the 29 Dec. 1647 made between the said Sir Ralph Hare of the one part, and Isaac Appleton and Dame Susan Crane widow of the said Sir Robert Crane and then the wife of the said Isaac Appleton of the other part, a yearly sum of 800 was charged on the manors of Sir Ralph Hare, but the Woodhall manor was apparently left unsettled. Sir Ralph Hare was Knight of the Shire for Norfolk in several parliaments and was also chosen burgess for Lynn. He died in 1671 and was buried with his ancesters in the dormitory in Stow Bardolph Church, having this inscription:
Here lyeth the Body of the Honourable Sir Ralph Hare, Baronet, he departed this life the last of February 1671. Although his body is turned to dust, his Soule lives ever with the Just. The manor passed to his only son Sir Thomas Hare Bart., who married Elizabeth sister of Sir Robert Dashwood of Northbrook in Oxfordshire Bart. Sir Thomas Hare was Knight of the Shire for Norfolk and dying in 1693 was buried in the dormitory adjoining the chancel in Stow Bardolph Church with this inscription on a noble monument having his effigies in a recumbent posture: In Memory of Sir Thos. Hare Bart., who departed this Life the ist day of Jany. 1693, aged 35 years, and left a lady and 4 sons and 5 daughters. The Glorious Sun which sets at Night, Appears next Morn as Clear and bright ; The Gaudy Deckings of the Earth, Do every Spring receive new Birth ; But Life when fled has no return, In Vain we Sigh, in Vain we Mourn ; Yet does the Turtle justly grieve her fate, When she is left behind without her Mate ; Not less does she who raised this Tomb, And wishes here to have a Room ; With that dear He who underneath does lye, Who was the Treasure of her Heart and pleasure of her Eye. Arms of the Hares: Gules, two bars, and a chief indented, or. In 1805 the manor was vested in William Jones.

The Domesday Book refers to Countess Alvera with an estate of 3 carucates of land, 1 Villein, 63 burgesses living at the Hall or Manor House, 6 serfs, 3 plough teams in demesne and 55 burgesses in demesne with 2 carucates of land. These had 4 plough teams There was also the Church of St Gregory, with 50 acres of free land and 25 acres of meadow. Likewise, a mill and 8 acres of meadow in the borough, and one market and money coiners. There was also a soc in the town.

Clearly post-Conquest, the De Clare’s who became the Lords of the Manor, resided at Clare Castle where most legal dictates and documents originate from. The ancient hundred of Babergh had held its meetings in the near vicinity and it logically came to be that local matters were dealt with at a manorial court held in the location of Woodhall.