p. lxxvii), and the compilers of the pedigrees of the family of Mountmorres, or Montmorency, have caused much confusion by importing into their schemes the names of all persons of any note who were known by that common appellation, or by one at all like it [see under Mount-Maurice, Hervey de].
276), a fact which may account for his rise to wealth and power in Ireland ; and that his mother was alive in 1220 (Royal Letters, Henry III, i.
Marisco was powerful in the south of Munster and Leinster, and appears to have received large grants of land in Ireland from King John.
When war broke out among the English in Leinster, the lords and others who were discontented with the government of the justiciar Hugh de Lacy seem to have looked on Marisco as their leader.
For this he obtained the king's pardon (Gilbert, ut supra, p. 66), and in 1210 made successful war against the Irish of Connaught (Annals of Loch CS, i.
When Innocent III was threatening, in or about 1211, to absolve John's subjects from their allegiance, he joined the other magnates of Ireland in making a protestation of loyalty (Documents, No.
In the summer of 1215 he was with the king at Marlborough, and on 6 July was appointed justiciar of Ireland, giving two of his sons as pledges for his behaviour (ib.
On the accession of Henry III he advised that Queen Isabella, or her second son, Richard, should reside in Ireland (Gilbert, ut supra, p. 80).
He built a castle at Killaloe, co. Clare, in 1217, and forced the people to accept an English bishop, Robert Travers, apparently one of his own relatives (Annals of the Four Masters, iii.
Having already taken the cross he received a safe-conduct to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land (Calendar of Patent Rolls, 3 Hen.
During the absence of the justiciar, William, the earl-marshal, in 1224, Marisco had charge of the country, and carried on war with Aedh O'Neill.
He advised that Theobald should be deprived of the castle of Roscray, and promised that he would use every effort to punish the king's enemies (Royal Letters, i.
In common with Maurice FitzGerald, then justiciar, and other lords, Marisco in 1234 received a letter written by the king's counsellors, and sealed by him, directing that should Richard, the earl-marshal, come to Ireland he should be taken alive or dead.
Acting by his advice, the earl, at a conference with the magnates at the Curragh, Kildare, refused to grant them the truce that they demanded.
When they set the battle against him Marisco deserted the earl, who was wounded, taken prisoner, and soon afterwards died (Paris, iii.
Marisco fell into temporary disgrace with the king for his share in the business, but on 3 August 1235 Henry restored him his lands (Documents, No.
In this year his son William, it is said, slew, at London, a clerk named Henry Clement, a messenger from one of the Irish magnates, and was consequently outlawed (ib.
A man who was accused of an intent to assassinate the king at Woodstock in 1238 was said to have been instigated by William de Marisco; his father, Marisco, was suspected of being privy to the scheme, and his lands in Ireland being distrained upon, he fled to Scotland, where he was, with the connivance of Alexander II, sheltered by Walter Comyn, no doubt his kinsman.
There he was joined by a number of broken men, and adopted piracy as a means of sustaining life, specially plundering ships laden with wine and provisions.
Strict watch was kept, in the hope of taking him, and in 1242 he was taken by craft, carried to London, and there drawn, handed, and quartered, sixteen of his companions being also hanged.
In his dying confession he protested his innocence of the death of Clement, and of the attempt on the king's life (Paris, iv.
He had married Matilda, niece of Henry, archbishop of Dublin, who gave her land on her marriage (Documents, Nos.
The accusation of treason brought against him and his son William is extremely improbable, and their ruin must be considered as a result, of the indignation excited by the fate of the earl-marshal.
Marisco founded an Augustinian monastery at Killagh, co. Kerry, called Beaulieu (Monasticon Hibernicum, p. 304), and commanderies of knights hospitallers at Any and Adair, co.
Of Marisco's many sons, William, Robert, Walter, Thomas, Henry, John, and Richard appear in various public records (see Documents passim).