TYRCON'NEL, RICHARD TALBOT. Earl and titular Duke of (1630-91). Viceroy of Ireland. He was the youngest son of Sir William Talbot, of County Kildare, Ireland, a prominent Roman Catholic politician during the reign of .Tames f. He fought against Cromwell at Drogheda and after the death of Charles 1. lived in Spain and Flanders. In his youth he was notorious as a sharper and bully and under the l'rotectorate he was recommended as a man fit to assassinate Cromwell. Soon after the Restoration he en deavored to obtain the favor of the royal family by blackening the reputation of Anne Hyde, so as to furnish the Duke of York with a pretext for breaking his promise of marriage to her. Though nimble to injure her reputation, he succeeded in gaining the favor of the Duke. and contrived to make himself welcome at the palace both as a votary of its pleasures and as a ettunselor in affairs of State. Immediately on the accession of James II. he was made Earl of Tyreonnel, and put in command of the troops in Ireland. Ile now aimed, by means of the Irish arnty, to make the King independent of Parlia ment. 'To this end he discharged Protestant sol diers, and favored Roman Catholics in every possible way. admitting them not only to the army. hut to olliees and corporations. This ser
vice he performed so well that in 1687 the King made him Lord Deputy of Ireland. His arrival in that country spread terror and dismay through the English Protestant population, who had al ready suffered under his military rule. Finding themselves without protection and their property a. prey to marafiders, many of them left the country. commerce declined, and economic con ditions became wretched. But this state of af fairs did not last long. On the arrival of James in Ireland in 16S9, after his flight from Eng land, lie created the Earl Duke of Tyreonnel. After the fatal battle of the Boyne (1690). in which the Duke held high command, lie retired to France. In 1691 he returned to Treland. to further the cause of James. Notwithstanding the defeat of Augli rims (July 12, 1691), and the capitu lation of Galway, Tyrconnel made prepara tions for the defense of Limerick, binding him self and his countrymen by oath not to surrender until they received permission from James, then at Saint Germain. • At the same time, however, he dispatched a letter in which lie stated his conviction that all was lost. On August I Ith, be fore an answer could arrive, he was stricken with apoplexy, and died on the 14th.