Charles MacCarty, Viscount Muskerry

Cormac (Charles) was born in 1633 or 1634,[lower-alpha 1] 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 Cormac[3][4][5] 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, his father was the Viscount Muskerry, but he would later become the Earl of Clancarty. His father belonged to the MacCarthy of Muskerry dynasty, a Gaelic Irish family that descended from the kings of Desmond.[6] Charles's mother (1612–1682)[7] was the eldest sister of James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormond.[8] 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.[9] Charles's parents were both Catholic.

At the time of his birth, Ireland was in 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 1642[15] and was appointed commander of the Confederate Munster army. In October 1645 Giovanni Battista Rinuccini, the papal nuncio visited Macroom Castle where he was living.[16]

in May 1647, when Cormac was but 13 years old, his father sent him to France with a regiment to take service in Louis XIV's army.[17] Cormac sailed from Waterford on 15 May 1647.[18] France was, at that time, fighting Spain in the Franco-Spanish War (1635–1659). Cormac probably changed his name to Charles while being in France or later in Restoration England.

He was a moderate and in August 1647 laid down his command of the Munster army.[19]

His father also sent his wife to security in France, probably accompanied by Callaghan's younger brother, Justin, and his sisters. His mother lived with her sister Mary Butler, Lady Hamilton, in the convent of the Feuillantines in Paris.[20] He seems to have kept Callaghan with him in Ireland.

His father took up arms again to fight Cromwell and surrendered his last stronghold, Ross Castle, to Edmund Ludlow on 27 June 1652, disbanding his 5000-men strong army.[21][22] One of his sons, probably Callaghan, was with him in Ross Castle and was given to Ludlow as a hostage to guarantee his father's compliance with the terms.[23]

At the Restoration Lord 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 during 1661 but left before the Sale of Dunkirk in November 1662.[28] 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.[29]

In 1660 or 1661 Lord Muskerry married Margaret Bourke, a rich heiress, the only child of Ulick Burke, 1st Marquess of Clanricarde and Lady Anne Compton.[30][31]

Charles and Margaret had two children, a girl and a boy:

1. Frances (1662–1675), died young[32][33]
2. Charles (1663–1666), succeeded his grandfather as the 2nd Earl, but died as an infant[34][35]

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.[36] This visit to Tunbridge is described by Antoine Hamilton in his semi-fictional Mémoires du comte de Gramont (written 1704–1710).[37]

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.[38] She was however not invited to this masquerade, which took place in February 1665.[39][40]

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.[41][1][42] He was 31 years old.[2] Muskerry was buried on 19 June with great pomp at Westminster Abbey.[43][44]

Muskerry had an infant son, also called Charles, who succeeded him as heir apparent and Viscount of Muskerry. However, the 1st Earl, his father, died on 4 August 1665[45] surviving him by only two months, and the younger Charles, therefore, succeeded as the 2nd Earl but died only about a year later, on 22 September 1666, still an infant. Thereupon Callaghan, his uncle, succeeded as the 3rd Earl of Clancarty.[46]

His widow made two further marriages: to Robert Villiers, and to Robert Fielding. She died in 1698 at Somerhill House.[47] Her widower made a scandalous and bigamous marriage to Barbara Palmer, 1st Duchess of Cleveland, former royal mistress of Charles II.[48]

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