Ulster cycle: see Gaelic literature.

Ulster, northernmost of the historic provinces of Ireland. Modern Ulster consists of nine counties. Six (Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Derry, and Tyrone) now make up Northern Ireland (see Ireland, Northern), which is often referred to as Ulster; the remaining three (Cavan, Donegal, and Monaghan) are in the Republic of Ireland.

Mortimer, Roger de, 4th earl of March and 2d earl of Ulster, 1374-98, English nobleman. He succeeded (1381) his father, Edmund de Mortimer, 3d earl of March, and was brought up as a royal ward. In 1385 the childless Richard II proclaimed him heir presumptive to the throne. He came into possession of his estates in 1393, and in 1394 he went to Ireland with Richard to subdue the rebel Irish chiefs. Remaining there as lieutenant of Ireland he won some popularity with the people because of his bravery and liberality. His death in a battle with the clans of Leinster precipitated Richard II's fateful expedition to Ireland in 1399.

Mortimer, Edmund de, 5th earl of March and 3d earl of Ulster, 1391-1425, English nobleman, son of Roger de Mortimer, 4th earl of March. He succeeded (1398) his father not only as earl of March and Ulster but as heir presumptive to the childless Richard II. However, after the usurpation (1399) of the throne by the Lancastrian Henry IV, Mortimer was imprisoned, although allowed to inherit his estates. On the accession of Henry V (1413), he was released and served Henry in the French wars. He refused to countenance plots of partisans to raise him to the throne and even denounced a body of these conspirators to the king. After Henry V's death, Mortimer became (1422) a member of the regency council for the young Henry VI. In 1424 he took the post of lieutenant of Ireland, where his death by plague ended the male line of the Mortimers. His heiress was his sister Anne, whose son by Richard, earl of Cambridge, was Richard, duke of York, father of Edward IV and Richard III.

Mortimer, Edmund de, 3d earl of March and 1st earl of Ulster, 1351-81, English nobleman. He succeeded (1360) his father, Roger, 2d earl of March, married (1368) Philippa, daughter of Edward III's son Lionel, duke of Clarence, and on Lionel's death (1368) inherited his estates and the title of earl of Ulster. Later the house of York (see York, house of) traced part of its claim to the throne to this union. Mortimer held the office of marshal of England from 1369 to 1377 and supported the party that opposed John of Gaunt. After the accession of Richard II (1377) he was elected to the boy king's first council. In 1379 he was sent as lieutenant of Ireland to subdue Irish unrest. His daughter Elizabeth married Sir Henry Percy, known as Hotspur.

or Ulaid cycle

In early Irish literature, a group of legends and tales dealing with the heroic age of the Ulaid, a people of northeast Ireland from whom the modern name Ulster derives. The stories, set in the 1st century BC, were recorded from oral tradition between the 8th and 11th century and are preserved in the 12th-century manuscripts The Book of the Dun Cow and The Book of Leinster and later compilations. Reflecting the customs of a free pre-Christian aristocracy, they combine mythological and legendary elements. Among the stories are “Bricriu's Feast,” containing a beheading game that appeared in medieval narratives, and “The Tragic Death of the Sons of Usnech,” dramatized in the 20th century by William Butler Yeats and John Millington Synge.

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Historical province, northern Ireland. It now forms Northern Ireland and Ulster province of Ireland. The ancient province was home to the Roman Catholic O'Neills (earls of Tyrone), who rebelled against English rule circa 1600. After they fled, most of the land was confiscated by British King James I and settled with Protestant Scots, Welsh, and English. It was further colonized after Cromwellian settlement in the mid-17th century. In the early 20th century its opposition to Irish Home Rule led to the formation of Northern Ireland.

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