Charles MacCarthy, 1st Viscount Muskerry explained

Charles MacCarthy
Viscount Muskerry
Tenure:1628–1641
Predecessor:Cormac, 16th Lord of Muskerry
Successor:Donough, 1st Earl of Clancarty
Issue:Donough & others
Issue-Link:
  1. chldrn
Father:Cormac, 16th Lord of Muskerry
Mother:Mary Butler
Death Date:20 February 1641
Death Place:London
Burial Place:Westminster Abbey

Sir Charles MacCarthy, 1st Viscount of Muskerry (died 1641), also called Cormac Oge, especially in Irish, was from a family of Irish chieftains who were the Lords of Muskerry, related to the Old English through maternal lines. He became the 17th Lord of Muskerry upon his father's death in 1616. He acquired a noble title under English law, becoming 1st Viscount Muskerry and 1st Baron Blarney under letters patent. He sat in the House of Lords in both Irish parliaments of King Charles I. He opposed Strafford, the king's viceroy in Ireland, and in 1641 contributed to his demise by submitting grievances to the king in London. Muskerry died during this mission and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

Birth and origins

Charles, also called Cormac, was probably born in the 1570s in County Cork, southern Ireland. Living in a bilingual context, he had two names, Charles in English and Cormac in Irish. He was the eldest son of Cormac MacDermot MacCarthy and his wife Mary Butler. As his father's name also was Cormac, he was distinguished as "Cormac oge", the younger, whereas his father usually included the patronymic "MacDermot" (son of Dermot) in his name. MacDermot (Charles's father) was the 16th Lord of Muskerry. MacDermot had conformed to the established religion, in other words: become a Protestant, by adhering to the Church of Ireland. Charles's father's family were the MacCarthys of Muskerry, a Gaelic Irish dynasty that had branched from the MacCarthy-Mor line in the 14th century when a younger son received Muskerry as appanage.

Charles's mother was the second daughter of Theobald Butler, 1st Baron Cahir. His mother's family was a cadet branch of the Butler Dynasty. The Butlers were Old English and descended from Theobald Walter, who had been appointed chief butler of Ireland by King Henry II in 1177. Charles was one of four siblings. see the list in his father's article.

MacCarthy seems to have been a protestant in his youth but later became Catholic.

First marriage and children

MacCarthy married Margaret O'Brien in about 1590. She was a daughter of Donogh O'Brien, 4th Earl of Thomond, a protestant. Her family, the O'Briens, were another Gaelic Irish dynasty, descending, in her case, from Brian Boru, a medieval high king of Ireland.

Charles and Margaret had two sons:

  1. Cormac, disabled, died young predeceasing his father
  2. Donough (1594–1665), 1st earl of Clancarty and 2nd viscount of Muskerry

—and five daughters (in an unordered list as their birth order is poorly known):

Tyrone's Rebellion

MacDermot (MacCarthy's father) fought in Tyrone's Rebellion, also called the Nine Years' War, which lasted from 1593 to 1603. He sided with the English and fought the Spanish during the Siege of Kinsale in 1601. Most of MacCarthy's life fell into the subsequent period of almost 40 years of peace in southern Ireland from the Treaty of Mellifont, which ended the Nine Years' War, to the Irish Rebellion of 1641.

Lord and Viscount

In 1616 MacCarthy succeeded his father as the 17th Lord of Muskerry. Lord Deputy Oliver St John knighted him in 1620. In 1628 Charles I, King of Ireland, England, and Scotland, created him Baron Blarney and Viscount Muskerry. The titles were probably bought. They had a special remainder that designated his second son Donough as successor, excluding his eldest son Cormac, who was alive at the time but disabled.

This is the first creation of the title Muskerry. The title would become extinct with the attainder of the 4th earl in 1691 but be resurrected in the 2nd creation as Baron Muskerry in favour of Robert Tilson Deane, 1st Baron Muskerry in 1781.

Parliament of 1634–1635

Muskerry, as he was now, sat in the House of Lords during the two Irish parliaments of King Charles I. The Irish Parliament of 1634–1635 was opened on 14 July 1634 by the new Lord Deputy of Ireland, Thomas Wentworth (the future Lord Strafford), who had taken office in July 1633. Muskerry took his seat immediately at the opening. Wentworth dissolved parliament on 18 April 1635.

Second marriage

When his first wife died, Muskerry remarried in or after 1636 to Ellen Roche, eldest daughter of David Roche, 7th Viscount Fermoy, a zealous Catholic. It was also her second marriage. She was the widow of Donal MacCarthy Reagh of Kilbrittain, Prince of Carbery in the Gaelic tradition, with whom she had had a son called Charles MacCarthy Reagh of Kilbrittain, who had in 1636 before his father's death, married Eleanor, one of Muskerry's daughters from his first marriage. Muskerry thus married the mother of one of his sons-in-law.

Muskerry was a Catholic during his later life. He probably converted after the death of his first wife, whose father had been a protestant.

Parliament of 1640–1649

The Irish Parliament of 1640–1649 was opened on 16 March 1640 by Christopher Wandesford, whom Strafford, as Wentworth was now called, had appointed lord deputy after he himself had been promoted lord lieutenant. Strafford arrived two days later. In its first session the parliament unanimously voted four subsidies of £45,000 (about £ in) to raise an Irish army of 9000 for use by the King against the Scots in the Second Bishops' War. While attending parliament, Muskerry probably stayed at his new townhouse built about that time on Dublin's College Green.

On 3 April 1640 Strafford left Ireland. Wandesford stood in for him. The Commons formed a commission of grievances that gathered evidence for Strafford's abuse of power. They sent a delegation to Westminster where they submitted the grievances to the King. This delegation included Muskerry's son Donough.

Unlike the Commons, the Lords had not acted on grievances during the third parliamentary session, but afterwards some of them decided to send Lords Muskerry, Gormanston, Dillon, and Kilmallock to London to submit their grievances to the King. Parliament met again on 26 January 1641. Lord Deputy Wandesford had died on 3 December 1640, and the Irish government devolved to Lords Justices, first Robert Dillon and Parsons, but in February 1641 Borlase replaced Roscommon.

The House of Lords recognised its members who had gone to London as constituting one of its committees and excused their absence. On 18 February 1641 the lords' grievances were written up in 18 articles. The lords complained that Strafford had overtaxed them.

Death and timeline

Muskerry died on 20 February 1641 in London during his parliamentary mission. He was buried in Westminster Abbey. Muskerry was succeeded by his second son Donough. As the ailing elder brother had died some time before, the title's special remainder did not need to be invoked. His widow married Thomas, 4th son of Thomas Fitzmaurice, 18th Baron Kerry.

Timeline
As his birth date is uncertain, so are all his ages. Italics for historical background.
AgeDateEvent
01564Born according to O'Hart.
0About 1570Born
About 1590Married Margaret O'Brien
1594Son Donough born
22 Sep 1601The Spanish landed at Kinsale
24 Mar 1603Accession of James I, succeeding Elizabeth I
30 Mar 1603Treaty of Mellifont ended Tyrone's Rebellion.
2 Jul 1615Oliver St John, appointed lord deputy of Ireland
23 Feb 1616Succeeded his father as 17th Lord of Muskerry
27 Mar 1625Accession of Charles I, succeeding James I
15 Nov 1628Created Baron Blarney and Viscount Muskerry
12 Jan 1632Thomas Wentworth, later Earl of Stafford, appointed lord deputy of Ireland
16362nd wife's 1st husband, Donal MacCarthy Reagh of Kilbrittain, died.
20 Feb 1641Died in London

Notes and references

Sources

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Charles MacCarthy, 1st Viscount Muskerry".

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