Tyrconnell, Richard Talbot, I st earl of

Tyrconnell, Richard Talbot, I st earl of (1630–91), Catholic leader. The youngest son of a Co. Meath Old English family, Talbot fought with the Catholic and royalist forces in the Confederate War, narrowly escaping death at Drogheda, then served with the future James II in the French and Spanish armies. Following the Restoration he emerged as the leading Irish Catholic spokesman at court. A rake and duellist, he was noted for his violent tongue but proved himself a shrewd and subtle political manipulator. After James's accession Talbot, now earl of Tyrconnell, steadily increased his power, undermining more moderate rivals like the earl of Clarendon, lord lieutenant 1685–6, and eventually securing James's agreement not just to the creation of an almost wholly Catholic army and civil administration, but also to preparations for a parliament that would revise the Restoration land settlement.

After the revolution of 1688 Tyrconnell apparently considered making terms with William III, before deciding to hold Ireland for James. His advocacy of a negotiated surrender following the battle of the Boyne brought him into conflict with the war party headed by Sarsfield. With most native Irish among the militants, the conflict was exacerbated by Tyrconnell's narrowly Old English sympathies. After the battle of Aughrim, by contrast, Tyrconnell favoured continued resistance, but died on 14 August 1691. His wife Frances Jennings (d. 1731) was outlawed in 1693 as a dangerous papist in her own right, but a private act in 1702, obtained through her sister Sarah, duchess of Marlborough, secured her jointure from the forfeited estate.