Brian na Murtha O'Rourke

O'Rourke (Irish: Brian na Múrtha Ó Ruairc) (c. 1540 – 1591) was firstly king, then lord, of West Breifne in Ireland from 1566 until his execution in 1591. He reigned during the later stages of the Tudor conquest of Ireland and his rule was marked by English encroachments on his lands. Despite being knighted by the English in 1585, he would later be proclaimed a rebel and forced to flee his kingdom in 1590. He travelled to Scotland in early 1591 seeking assistance from King James VI, however he was to become the first man extradited within Britain on allegations of crimes committed in Ireland and was sentenced to death in London in November 1591.

Family

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_O%27Rourke

Brian O'Rourke had at least six known children - Eóghan, Brian Óg, Tadhg, Art, Eogan and Mary.

O'Rourke's first two children were by Annalby O'Crean. She is described as being the wife of a Sligo merchant and it is not known whether she and Brian were ever officially married. They had two known children - Eóghan, born in 1562, and Brian Óg, born in 1568.

Brian's first recorded marriage was to Lady Mary Burke (a daughter of the second Earl of Clanricarde). They had three known children - Tadhg, born in 1576, and two other sons named Art and Eogan. O'Rourke and Burke separated sometime prior to 1585 but were never formally divorced. Tadhg, and possibly their other children, continued to live with their mother in Galway following the separation.

O'Rourke later married Elenora, daughter of James FitzGerald, 14th Earl of Desmond and they had a daughter, Mary. They later separated and Elenora remarried. She died in the spring of 1589. Based on accounts from Francisco de Cuellar who spent the Autumn of 1588 at O'Rourke's castle, Brian appears to have remarried once more, his wife being described by de Cuellar as "beautiful in the extreme".

References

• https://sites.rootsweb.com/~ruairc/obreifne_kings_dromahair.htm