Richard Talbot, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell, (c. 1630 – 14 August 1691) was an Irish politician, courtier and soldier.
Talbot's early career was spent as a cavalryman in the Irish Confederate Wars. Following a period on the Continent, he joined the court of James, Duke of York, then in exile following the English Civil War; Talbot became a close and trusted associate. After the 1660 restoration of James's older brother Charles to the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland Talbot began acting as agent or representative for Irish Catholics attempting to recover estates confiscated after the Cromwellian conquest, a role that would define the remainder of his career. James converted to Catholicism in the late 1660s, strengthening his association with Talbot.
When James took the throne in 1685, Talbot's influence increased. He oversaw a major purge of Protestants from the Irish Army, which had previously barred most Catholics. James created him Earl of Tyrconnell and later made him Viceroy, or Lord Deputy of Ireland: he immediately began building a Catholic establishment by admitting Catholics to many administrative, political and judicial posts.
Tyrconnell's efforts were interrupted by James's 1688 deposition by his Protestant son-in-law William of Orange. Tyrconnell continued as a Jacobite supporter of James during the subsequent Williamite War in Ireland, but also considered a peace settlement with William that would preserve Catholic rights. Increasingly incapacitated by illness, he died of a stroke shortly before the Jacobite defeat in 1691.
Talbot was controversial in his own lifetime; his own Chief Secretary, Thomas Sheridan, later described him as a "cunning dissembling courtier [...] turning with every wind to bring about his ambitious ends and purposes". Many 19th and early 20th century historians repeated this view. Recent assessments have suggested a more complex individual whose career was defined by personal loyalty to his patron James and above all by an effort to improve the status of the Irish Catholic gentry, particularly the "Old English" community to which he belonged.
Richard Talbot was born in about 1630, probably in Dublin. He was one of sixteen children, the youngest of eight sons of William Talbot and his wife Alison Netterville; William was a lawyer and the 1st Baronet Talbot of Carton. His mother was a daughter of John Netterville of Castletown, Kildare.
The Talbots were descended from a Norman family that had settled in Leinster in the 12th century; from the late 16th century, the term "Old English" was often applied to those of Anglo-Norman or Cambro-Norman descent in Ireland. Like most "Old English" families, the Talbots had adhered to the Catholic faith, despite the founding of the Reformed Church of Ireland under Henry VIII.
Other sons included Robert (c.1610–1670), who succeeded his father as the 2nd baronet, and Peter (1620–1680), a Jesuit who became the Catholic archbishop of Dublin. At least three of the eight brothers were entered into religious service on the Continent.
Little is recorded of Talbot's upbringing. As an adult he grew to be unusually tall and strong by standards of the time: the Mémoires of the Count de Gramont described him as "one of the tallest men in England and possessed of a fine and brilliant exterior". Contemporaries considered him strikingly good-looking; Sheridan, otherwise a critic, remembered him as a "tall, proper, handsome man". He was, however, notoriously quick-tempered, with a habit of throwing his wig onto the ground or into the fire when angry; his reputation for duelling earned him the nickname "Fighting Dick Talbot".
Talbot began his military career in the Confederate War that followed the Irish Rebellion of 1641. He served in the Confederate Leinster army as a cavalry cornet under Thomas Preston; when Preston was defeated at Dungan's Hill in 1647 by Parliamentarian forces, the victors slaughtered several thousand of the Irish troops and Talbot was extremely fortunate to be ransomed back to his own side.
In September 1649 he was part of Aston's Royalist and Confederate garrison besieged in Drogheda by the Parliamentarians; he survived the wholesale massacre of the defenders by being so badly wounded he was assumed to be dead. He later escaped the town disguised as a woman, possibly with the help of a Parliamentarian officer. Talbot fled Ireland and vanished from records, re-emerging in Madrid in 1653, where he served as a captain in the Spanish army alongside other Royalist and Confederate exiles.
Introduction to the Stuart court
In 1655 a Royalist agent, Daniel O'Neill, took Talbot to meet Charles II. Talbot volunteered to be part of a plot to assassinate Oliver Cromwell, but was arrested in England in July after details were leaked to the government. Initially released, he was re-arrested in November after the seizure of another assassin, Colonel James Halsall.
Talbot was questioned at Whitehall by spymaster John Thurloe, with Cromwell himself present for part of the time. Cromwell allegedly claimed a family link with Talbot and asked why he wanted to kill a man who had "never prejudiced him in his life"; Talbot's brother Peter, recalling the story, said that "nothing made me laugh more". Talbot was threatened with torture and moved to the Tower of London; that night he spent the last of his money plying Cromwell's servants with wine before climbing down a rope to a waiting boat and escaping to Antwerp. It was later suspected that Talbot might have been permitted to escape in exchange for information; nothing was proved but the affair raised suspicions in "Old Royalist" circles.
In 1656 his brother Peter introduced him to James, Duke of York. The two men struck up a close and lifelong friendship: James appointed Talbot a Gentleman of the Bedchamber. He later put Talbot in command of his own regiment, against the advice of leading Irish Royalist the Duke of Ormond, who was doubtful of Talbot's reliability and his Catholicism.
Despite Ormond's misgivings, Talbot served with James's regiment in Flanders in 1657 and was present at the 1658 Siege of Dunkirk.
Talbot's influence increased after the 1660 Restoration of Charles as king. He travelled to England, where he was confirmed in the post of Gentleman of the Bedchamber and undertook a variety of diplomatic missions for the Stuart court.
The Act of Settlement 1662 rewarded those who had fought for the Royalists by making a partial reversal of the Cromwellian land settlement in Ireland. Talbot began acting as a land agent for clients hoping to acquire estates from ejected Cromwellian grantees; some were Irish Catholic landowners seeking restoration of previously forfeited estates, but his clients also included James and other court figures. After 1663 he lobbied for Catholic landowners hoping to get their cases included in a further Act. In the process he again clashed with Ormond, now Viceroy in Ireland; their argument ended with Charles sending Talbot to the Tower for a month.