Charles MacCarty, Viscount Muskerry

Charles MacCarty, Viscount Muskerry (1633 or 1634 – 1665), called Cormac in Irish, commanded a royalist battalion at the Battle of the Dunes during the interregnum. He was heir apparent to Donough MacCarty, 1st Earl of Clancarty but was killed at the age of 31 at the Battle of Lowestoft, a sea-fight against the Dutch, during the Second Anglo-Dutch War, and thus never succeeded to the earldom. He was buried in Westminster Abbey.

Birth and origins

Charles (i.e. Cormac) was born in 1633 or 1634,Template:Efn probably at Macroom Castle, County Cork, Ireland, his parents' habitual residence. He was the eldest son of Donough MacCarty and his wife Eleanor (or Ellen) Butler. He is also known as CormacTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn and this seems to have been his original name, whereas Charles seems to be a later English or French adaptation. At the time of his birth, Charles's father was the 2nd Viscount Muskerry, but he would be advanced to Earl of Clancarty in 1658.Template:Sfn His father's family were the MacCartys of Muskerry, a Gaelic Irish dynasty that branched from the MacCarthy-Mor line with Dermot MacCarthy, second son of Cormac MacCarthy-Mor, a medieval Prince of Desmond.Template:Sfn This second son had been granted the Muskerry area as appanage.Template:Sfn

Family tree

Charles's mother (1612–1682)Template:Sfn was the eldest sister of James Butler, the future Duke of Ormond.Template:Sfn Her family, the Butler dynasty, was Old English and descended from Theobald Walter, who had been appointed Chief Butler of Ireland by King Henry II in 1177.Template:Sfn Charles's parents were both Catholic. He had two brothers and two sisters, who are listed in his father's article.

Irish wars

At the time of his birth, Ireland enjoyed a period of peace between the end of Tyrone's Rebellion (1593–1603) and the Irish Rebellion of 1641. His father, after some hesitation, joined the Confederates in March 1642Template:Sfn and fought in that year at the Siege of LimerickTemplate:Sfn and the Battle of Liscarroll.Template:Sfn

In 1645 Pope Innocent X sent Giovanni Battista Rinuccini as nuncio to Ireland. Rinuccini landed at Kenmare, County Kerry.Template:Sfn and passed by Macroom Castle on his way to Kilkenny.Template:Sfn Cormac, about 11 years old, met Rinuccini, who was welcomed by his mother at the castle.Template:Sfn His father opposed Rinuccini and was detained when Rinuccini overturned the Confederate government in a coup d'état.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

in May 1647, when Charles was but 13 years old, his father sent him to France with a regiment to take service in Louis XIV's army.Template:Sfn Charles sailed from Waterford on 15 May 1647.Template:Sfn He was accompanied by John Callaghan, a Catholic priest and Jansenist, who was his tutor.Template:Sfn

In April 1650 his family lost Macroom Castle, where Charles had spent his childhood, in the context of the Battle of Macroom.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Around that time, anticipating the loss of Macroom or because of it, his father sent Cormac's mother, sisters and youngest brother to security in France. His mother then lived in Paris, where she rented an apartment in the convent of the Feuillantines.Template:Sfn

After Rinuccini's departure, his father took up arms again to fight the Cromwellians but was defeated in 1651 by Broghill at KnocknaclashyTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn and surrendered his last stronghold, Ross Castle, to Edmund Ludlow in 1652.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

On the continent

In France, MacCarty (Charles or Cormac) and his Irish regiment were employed to fight the Spanish in the Franco-Spanish War (1635–1659) on the border between France and the Spanish Netherlands.

Condé-sur-l'Escaut

MacCarty's regiment was part of the garrison of Condé-sur-l'Escaut when the town was taken by the Spanish shortly after their victory over the French at the Battle of Valenciennes on 16 July 1656.Template:Sfn

King Charles II, in exile in the Spanish Netherlands since March 1656,Template:Sfn sent the Marquess of Ormond, MacCarty's uncle, to ask him to join him with his regiment. He refused to change sides without having laid down his commission in proper form.Template:Sfn Having done this, however, he obeyed his king and changed sides together with his regiment, thereafter serving Charles II in Spanish pay. This regiment was then called the Duke of York's regiment after Charles II's brother the Duke of York and future James II.

Battle of the Dunes

MacCarty fought with his regiment at the Battle of the Dunes on 14 June 1658 where it formed part of the English royalist army under the Duke of York that fought together with the Spanish on the losing side against the victorious French and Protectorate English.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

On 27 November 1658 his father was created Earl of Clancarty by Charles II in Brussels.Template:Sfn By this advancement, the title of Viscount of Muskerry became the highest subsidiary title of the family, which was then given as courtesy title to the Earl's heir apparent. In consequence, MacCarty was styled Viscount Muskerry thereafter.Template:Sfn

Restoration

At the Restoration Muskerry, as he now was, did not accompany the king to Dover in May 1660 but stayed with his regiment at Dunkirk until at least March 1662.Template:Sfn He seems to have left shortly before the Sale of Dunkirk in November 1662.Template:Sfn His father, the 1st Earl of Clancarty, had meanwhile returned to Ireland and recovered his estates by virtue of Charles II "Gracious Declaration" of the 30 November 1660.Template:Sfn His father sat as Lord Clancarty in the Irish Parliament of 1661–1666 and was part oif a committee that organised a gift of £30,000 for the Duke of Ormond. On 19 August 1662, Muskerry was called to the parliament to replace his father on that committee.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Marriage and children

In 1660 or 1661 Muskerry married Margaret Bourke, a rich heiress, the only child of Ulick Burke, 1st Marquess of Clanricarde and Lady Anne Compton.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Charles and Margaret had a girl and a boy:

1. Frances (1662–1675), died youngTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn
2. Charles (1663–1666), succeeded his grandfather as the 2nd Earl, but died as an infantTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Life at the Restoration court

Lord and Lady Muskerry frequently attended the court at Whitehall. In July 1663 they went with the court to take the waters at Tunbridge Wells during which visit the Muskerrys as well as Elizabeth Hamilton and Elizabeth Wetenhall stayed at nearby Somerhill House, which had been built by Lady Muskerry's grandfather, Richard Burke, 4th Earl of Clanricarde and had been given back to her at the Restoration.Template:Sfn This visit to Tunbridge is described by Antoine Hamilton in his semi-fictional Mémoires du comte de Gramont (written 1704–1710).Template:Sfn

The Mémoires du comte de Gramont (Chapter 7) tell how Elizabeth Hamilton made fun of Lady Muskerry by making her believe that the King had invited her to a masquerade and that she had to disguise herself as a Babylonian woman.Template:Sfn She was however not invited to this masquerade, which took place in February 1665.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Death, succession, and timeline

The Second Anglo-Dutch War broke out on 4 March 1665. Muskerry was killed on 3 June 1665 in the Battle of Lowestoft, a naval engagement, on board of the flagship, the Royal Charles, by a cannonball, which also killed Charles Berkeley, 1st Earl of Falmouth.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn He was 31 years old. Muskerry was buried on 19 June with great pomp at Westminster Abbey.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Muskerry had an infant son, Charles James, who succeeded him as heir apparent and Viscount of Muskerry. However, the 1st Earl, his father, died on 4 August 1665Template:Sfn surviving him by only two months, and the little Charles James, therefore, succeeded as the 2nd Earl but died about a year later, on 22 September 1666, still an infant.Template:Sfn Thereupon Callaghan, his uncle, succeeded as the 3rd Earl of Clancarty.Template:Sfn

His widow made two further marriages: to Robert Villiers, and to Robert Fielding. She died in 1698 at Somerhill House.Template:Sfn Her widower made a scandalous and bigamous marriage to Barbara Palmer, 1st Duchess of Cleveland, former royal mistress of Charles II.Template:Sfn

Timeline
Age	Date	Event
0	1633 or 1634	Born, probably at Macroom CastleTemplate:Efn
	1642, Mar	Father joined the Confederates.
	1645, Oct	Met Rinuccini, the papal nuncio, at Macroom Castle where he was livingTemplate:Sfn
	1646, Sep	Rinuccini overturned the Confederate government in a coup d'état.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
	1647, May	Went to France with a regiment
	1649, 30 Jan	King Charles I beheaded.Template:Sfn
	1649, 15 Aug	Oliver Cromwell landed in DublinTemplate:Sfn
	1651, early	Mother and his young siblings fled to France.Template:Sfn
	1652, 27 Jun	Father surrendered Ross Castle to the Parliamentarians.
	1656, 2 Apr	Charles concluded the Treaty of Brussels with Spain.
	1656	Surrendered to the Spanish at the capture of Condé-sur-l'Escaut
	1658, 14 Jun N.S.	Commanded a battalion at the Battle of the Dunes
	1658, 3 Sep	Oliver Cromwell died.Template:Sfn
	1658, 27 Nov	Became Viscount Muskerry as his father was promoted Earl of Clancarty
	1660, 29 May	Restoration of King Charles IITemplate:Sfn
	1661	Came back to England and Ireland after the Restoration
	1661, about	Married Margaret Bourke, only child of Ulick Burke, 1st Marquess of Clanricarde
	1662	Daughter Frances born
	1665, 3 Jun O.S.	Killed at the Battle of Lowestoft, a naval engagement with the Dutch

Notes and references

Sources

Subject matter monographs:

• Click here. Webb 1878 in Compendium of Irish Biography

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