Burgh, Elizabeth de (1332–63), heiress of Ulster, was born 6 July 1332, only child of William de Burgh (qv), earl of Ulster, and Maud, daughter of Henry, earl of Lancaster and Leicester. After her father's death (6 June 1333), which precipitated the destruction of his lordship, she fled with her mother to England. Her mother married Ralph de Ufford (qv), a royal favourite and justiciar of Ireland 1344–6, before 8 August 1343.
On 17 July 1334 she was described as a minor in the king's wardship. On 1 May 1341 the king granted Maud £100 out of exchequer receipts for Elizabeth's maintenance, and four days later the child was formally betrothed to Edward III's third son, Lionel (qv), future duke of Clarence. The marriage alliance was made public by the king with the remark that it had been ‘insistently asked for by the prelates, nobles, and people of our land of Ireland, as a great comfort and security to them, and in order to foster the devotion and fidelity of the people of the said land towards our royal house’ (Rymer, Foedera, II.ii.1159, as translated in Frame, English lordship, 51). Aged 10, she was married in the Tower of London on 9 September 1342. For much of her minority she stayed with her mother, though her upkeep remained a royal responsibility. Her stepfather was ordered to try to halt the disintegration of her husband's patrimony, jure uxoris, early in 1346, but failed to do so. The custody of the earldom was then transferred to Queen Philippa in May the same year.
In September 1353 Elizabeth was granted an annuity of £200 by the crown till her inheritance in Ireland was restored. She probably accompanied her husband when he sailed to Ireland in September 1361 as the king's lieutenant. She died in Dublin in 1363 and was buried at Clare priory, Suffolk. Her only daughter, Philippa, was born 16 August 1355 at Eltham, Kent, and was baptised there.