Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork (13 October 1566 – 15 September 1643), also known as 'the Great Earl of Cork', was an English politician who served as Lord Treasurer of the Kingdom of Ireland.
Lord Cork was an important figure in the continuing English colonisation of Ireland in the 16th and 17th centuries, as he acquired large tracts of land in plantations in Munster in southern Ireland. Moreover, his sons played an important role in fighting against the Irish Catholic rebellion in the 1640s and 1650s, assisting in the victory of the British and Protestant interests in Ireland.
In addition to being the first Earl of Cork, he was the patriarch of the Boyle family through his many prominent descendants, whose titles included Earl of Orrery (1660), Earl of Burlington (1664) and Earl of Shannon (1756).
Boyle was born at Canterbury on 13 October 1566, the second son of Roger Boyle (d. 24 March 1576 at Preston, near Faversham in Kent), a descendant of an ancient landed Herefordshire family, and of Joan (15 October 1529 –20 March 1586), daughter of John Naylor, who were married in Canterbury on 16 October 1564. Both his parents are interred in an alabaster tomb at the upper end of the chancel of the parish church of Preston. His elder brother was John Boyle, Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross.
Young Boyle went to The King's School, Canterbury, at the same time as Christopher Marlowe. His university education began at Bennet (Corpus Christi) College, Cambridge, England, in 1583. After this he studied law at the Middle Temple in London and became a clerk to Sir Roger Manwood, Kt., who was then the Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer.
Before completing his studies, Boyle decided "to gain learning, knowledge, and experience abroad in the world" and left London for a new start in Ireland. He arrived in Dublin on 23 June 1588 with just over £27 (equivalent to £9,342 in 2025),as well as a gold bracelet worth £10 (£3,460 in 2025), and a diamond ring (given to him by his mother at her death and which he wore all his life), besides some fine clothing, and his "rapier and dagger".
In 1590 he obtained the appointment of deputy Escheator to John Crofton, the Escheator-General.
On 6 November 1595, Boyle married Joan Apsley (1578 – 14 December 1599), the daughter and co-heiress of William Apsley of Limerick, one of the council to the first President of the province of Munster.
Apsley was the heiress of lands in Galbally, with a fortune greater than that of Richard Boyle. Joan was said to have been "charmed by Mr. Boyle's conversation," and her father allowed them to marry. She married Boyle at Limerick on 6 November 1595, she being 17 and he 28. This marriage brought her husband an estate worth £500 a year, "the beginning and foundation of my fortune", (equivalent to £122,969 in 2025), which he continued to receive until at least 1632.
She died during childbirth aged 21 in Mallow, Ireland and was buried with her still-born son in Buttevant church, County Cork, Ireland. Boyle's detractors maintained that unlike many of his other close relatives whom he took great care to commemorate, Richard took no trouble to have Joan, his first wife commemorated after her death. Boyle commemorated Joan in the south chapel, known as the Chantry of our Blessed Saviour, of St. Mary's Collegiate Church in Youghal, which he purchased in 1606 to make it into a mortuary chapel for his family. This tomb, completed in 1619, depicts Joan kneeling at her husband's feet dressed in "a richly brocaded purple gown." This led to the conviction among some that his monumental commemorative endeavours were motivated by how they could help achieve his personal objectives, rather than sentimental, as Joan's connections were of no direct use to him after her death.
His strongest commemoration of Joan might be in the name he gave his fourth daughter but this may of course have been given in memory of his mother.
Boyle by this time had been the object of the attacks of Sir Henry Wallop, Treasurer at War, Sir Robert Gardiner, Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, Sir Robert Dillon, Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas, and Sir Richard Bingham, Chief Commissioner of Connaught, a demonstration, said Boyle, of their envy of his success and increasing prosperity.
Boyle was arrested on charges of fraud and collusion with the Spanish (essentially accusations of covert papist infiltration, a treasonable offence for an official in Queen Elizabeth I's Protestant civil service) in his office. He was thrown into prison (at least once by Sir William FitzWilliam in about 1592) several times during this episode. He was about to leave for England to justify himself to Queen Elizabeth I, when there was a rebellion in Munster in October 1598, and "all my lands were wasted" which once again returned him to poverty. The Nine Years' War arrived in Munster with Irish rebels from Ulster, who were joined by locals who had lost land to English settlers. Boyle was forced to flee to Cork for safety.
This turn of events left him obliged to return to London and his chambers at The Temple. At this point, he was almost immediately taken into the service of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex.
Henry Wallop then renewed his prosecution of Boyle. Boyle was summoned to appear at the Court of Star Chamber. In the proceedings, Boyle's adversaries seem to have failed to substantiate their accusations. Boyle had somehow managed to secure the attendance of Queen Elizabeth I herself at the proceedings, and he successfully exposed some misconduct on the part of his adversaries.
Elizabeth famously said: "By God's death, these are but inventions against the young man" and she also said he was "a man fit to be employed by ourselves".
He was immediately appointed Clerk of the Council of Munster by Elizabeth I in 1600. In December 1601, Boyle brought to Elizabeth the news of the victory near Kinsale.
In October 1602, Boyle was again sent over by Sir George Carew, the president of Munster, on Irish affairs. He was knighted at St Mary's Abbey, near Dublin, by Carew on 25 July 1603. the same day that he married his second wife, Catherine, daughter of Sir Geoffrey Fenton, Principal Secretary of State. In 1606 he was appointed as Privy Councillor for Munster and in 1612 as Privy Councillor for Ireland.