The de Clare family of Norman lords were associated with the Welsh Marches, Suffolk, Tonbridge and Ireland. They were descended from Richard Fitz Gilbert who accompanied William the Conqueror into England in 1066.

Richard took the name Clare from the head of his honour in Suffolk, where Clare Castle still exists.

The family name also has echoes in Ireland ? the modern Irish county of County Clare (which was historically part of the North Munster Gaelic kingdom of Thomond, dominated by the O'Briens, Kings of Thomond) was granted to the de Clare family in 1275. When the boundaries of the modern County Clare were fixed by Sir Henry Sidney in 1565, it was named after the family.

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