Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence

Born in Antwerp in 1338, Lionel was Edward III's second surviving son. His first marriage in 1347 to Elizabeth de Burgh made him Earl of Ulster and gave him vast estates across Ireland. He fought in France and Scotland through the 1350s, but after the Treaty of Brétigny his father sent him to Dublin as Lord Lieutenant in 1361, creating the new title Duke of Clarence for him the next year. For five years he led campaigns across the island and in February 1366 pushed through the Statutes of Kilkenny, a set of laws that became his chief mark on Irish governance. After Elizabeth died in 1363, Edward arranged a second match with Violante Visconti, daughter of Milan's ruler. The wedding was extravagant, held in mid-1368. Lionel died that October at twenty-nine - rumor pointed to poison. His only child, a daughter named Philippa, became the thread through which the House of York later claimed the English crown.