Charles MacCarty, Viscount Muskerry


Charles MacCarty, Viscount Muskerry was heir apparent to Donough MacCarty, 1st Earl of Clancarty but was killed at the age of 31 in the Battle of Lowestoft, a sea-fight against the Dutch, and never succeeded to the earldom.

Birth and origins

Charles was born in 1633 or 1634, probably at Blarney Castle, County Cork, Ireland. He was the third child and eldest son of Donough MacCarty and his wife Eleanor Butler. His father belonged to the MacCarthy of Muskerry dynasty, an ancient Gaelic Irish family that descended from the kings of Desmond. At the time of Charles's birth his father was the Viscount Muskerry, but he would later become the Earl of Clancarty. Charles's mother was the eldest sister of James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormond. The Butlers were an Old English family that played an important role in south-eastern Ireland since the Norman invasion of that country. Charles's parents were both Catholic. They had married before 1641.


Charles heads the list of his brothers below as the eldest:
  1. Charles ;
  2. Callaghan, succeeded his brother's son as the 3rd Earl of Clancarty; and
  3. Justin, fought for the Jacobites and became Viscount Mountcashel.
He also had sisters:
  1. Helen, became Countess of Clanricarde;
  2. Margaret, became Countess of Fingal;

    Hostage at the surrender of Ross Castle

His father, Lord Muskerry, commanded the Confederates' Munster army and fought the Parliamentarians during the Cromwellian Conquest of Ireland. Muskerry fought to the bitter end and surrendered Ross Castle near Killarney to Englishman Edmund Ludlow on 27 June 1652, disbanding his 5000-strong army. Charles was with him in Ross Castle and was given to Ludlow as hostage to guarantee his father's compliance with the terms.

Exile

His mother and his siblings had fled to France already some time before the capture of Ross Castle. His mother lived with her sister Mary Butler, Lady Hamilton, in the convent of the Feuillantines in Paris,
His father was allowed to embark to Spain. The family's estates were lost in the Act of Settlement of 1652, passed by the English Rump Parliament on 12 August. Muskerry found that he was not welcome in Spain and returned to Ireland in 1653, where he was put on trial in Dublin for the murder of English settlers in 1641. However, he was acquitted as its could be shown that he tried to save them and was not responsible for their murder.
At about 1653 he was reunited with his parents and siblings in France. that time France was in the Franco-Spanish War. Charles took French service and commanded an Irish regiment that was part of the garrison of Condé-sur-l'Escaut when the town was taken by the Spanish shortly after the Spanish victory at Valenciennes on 16 July 1656. He changed side together with his regiment and served 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 furture James II. He commanded this regiment at the Battle of the Dunes on 14 June 1658 where if 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.
On 27 November 1658 his father was created Earl of Clancarty by Charles II in Brussels, where he was then in exile. 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 Charles was styled Viscount Muskerry thereafter.

Restoration

At the Restoration Lord Muskerry, as he now was, did not accompany the King to Dover in May 1660 but stayed with his regiment in Flanders at least until 1661. His father, Earl Clancarty, recovered his estates in the Act of Settlement 1662. In that year Muskerry was summoned to the Irish House of Lords as Viscount Muskerry.

Marriage and children

In 1660 or 1661 he married Lady Margaret Bourke, a rich heiress, the only child of Ulick Burke, 1st Marquess of Clanricarde and Lady Anne Compton.
They had two children:
  1. Frances, died young; and
  2. Charles, succeeded his grandfather as the 2nd Earl, but died as an infant.

    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 Summerhill 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. This is described by Antoine Hamilton in his semi-fictional Mémoires du comte de Gramont.
In Chapter 7 of the Mémoires du comte de Gramont we are told how Elizabeth Hamilton made fun of Lady Muskerry by making her believe that she had been invited to a masquerade by the King and had to disguise herself as a Babylonian woman. She was however not invited to this masquerade which happened in February 1665.

Death and succession

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. He was 31 years old. Muskerry was buried on 19 June with great pomp at Westminster Abbey.
Muskerry had an infant son, also called Charles, who succeeded him as heir apparent and Viscount of Muskerry. However, the 1st Earl died on 4 August 1665 surviving him by only two months, and the younger Charles became the 2nd Earl. Sadly, the 2nd Earl died about a year later, on 22 September 1666, still an infant. Thereupon Callaghan, his uncle, succeeded as the 3rd Earl of Clancarty.
His widow made two further marriages: to Robert Villiers, and to Robert Fielding. She died in 1698 at Somerhill House. Her widower made a scandalous and bigamous marriage to Barbara Palmer, 1st Duchess of Cleveland, former royal mistress of Charles II.