Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
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Murrough O'Brien, 1st Earl of Inchiquin (c. 1618–9 September 1674), known from 1624 to 1654 as the 6th Baron Inchiquin, was a chieftain of the O'Briens and, after Ormond, the leading Protestant native Irish peer in Ireland. He was one of the ten named in Act for the Settlement of Ireland 1652 as leaders of the Royalist forces in Ireland.
Inchiquin served in the Spanish Army of Italy 1636-9 then returned to Ireland and married the daughter of Sir William St Leger, President of Munster. When St Leger died in 1641, Inchiquin took over the administration of Munster. At the Irish Uprising of 1641, he was the only lord descended from Irish chieftains to side with the settlers and Protestants against the Catholic Confederates. He held Cork and south-western Ireland in the King's name until the Cessation arranged by Ormond in September 1643. In 1642, he routed a Confederate army under Garret Barry that was advancing on Cork in the Battle of Liscarroll.
In February 1644, Inchiquin went to Oxford expecting to be granted the King’s commission as President of Munster, but Charles snubbed him by giving the post to the Earl of Portland. Enraged, Inchiquin returned to Ireland and declared his support for the Parliamentarians. He expelled the Catholics from Cork, Youghal, and Kinsale, and consolidated his hold on the south-west with a series of anti-Confederate actions. The slaughter of the garrison at Cashel in September 1647 and the subsequent devastation of Catholic held Munster earned him the nickname, Murchadh na dOitean or "Murrough of the Burnings" or "the Incendiary". [1]He decisively defeated Lord Taafe's Confederates at the battle of Knocknanauss in November 1647, crippling the Confederates' Munster Army.
Alarmed at the implications of the Vote of No Addresses, Inchiquin changed sides and declared for the King in March 1648. He called for a truce with the Confederates, but this caused a split between the Supreme Council and the Pope's representative, Archbishop Rinuccini. Inchiquin welcomed the Marquis of Ormond when he returned to Ireland in September 1648 and supported the Second Ormond Peace, which secured an alliance between the Royalists and the Confederates against the English Parliament. Inchiquin spent much of 1648 and 1649 trying to put down resistance to the Confederate-Royalist alliance by the dissident Ulster Catholic general Owen Roe O'Neill. The infighting was brought to an end by the summer of 1649, but hampered the Royalists' ability to resist Cromwell's invasion of Ireland. Inchiquinn was present at the Royalists' costly defeat at the Battle of Rathmines - his troops rearguard action enabling many of the remainder to get away. Three months after this he took charge of an army in an attempt to bring the offensive to the Parliamentarians but he was beaten back at the Battle of Arklow. This defeat largely discredited Inchiquin. By the following year, things looked hopeless for the Royalists. A few companies of Protestant troops still loyal to Inchiquin were routed in March by Broghill and by May 1650 many of Inchiquinn's remaining Protestant troops had defected to the Parliamentarians.He went into exile with Ormond to France shortly afterwards.
Inchiquin found favour with the exiled Charles II, who granted him an earldom in 1654. He fought with the French army in Italy and Catalonia 1654-5, when he converted to Catholicism. At the Restoration, Inchiquin recovered his estates in Munster but was denied the Presidency because of his religion. He commanded an unsuccessful expeditionary force sent by Charles II to help the Portuguese in 1662, after which he lived quietly in Ireland until his death in 1674.
This article incorporates text under a Creative Commons License by David Plant, the British Civil Wars and Commonwealth website http://www.british-civil-wars.co.uk/biog/inchiquin.htm
| Peerage of Ireland | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by New creation |
Earl of Inchiquin 1654-1674 |
Succeeded by William O'Brien |
| Preceded by Dermod O'Brien |
Baron Inchiquin 1624-1674 |
|
“Murrough of the Burnings”, ?
“…my Lord Inchiquin (who seems to be a very fine person…”[diary]
Murrough O’Brien, sixth Baron Inchiquin (1614-1674) whose exploits during the war of 1641-1650 earned him the sobriquet “Murrough of the Burnings”, http://homepage.tinet.ie/~asdfgh/obriens/clan.html
another source says
O’Brien, Murrough (1614-1674) 1st Earl of Inchiquin
http://www.hmc.gov.uk/NRA/searches/PIdocs.asp?P=21485
the 4th laird had but one child according to one geneology one child Mary o’brien married a boyle.
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Metro/2975/Rdat3.htm#41
a little background
In May 1652, he was made a Privy Counsellor. This appointment met with the all-important approval of Charles’s Lord Chancellor and principal adviser, Sir Edward Hyde. Hyde deemed Murrough ‘a gallant gentleman of good parts, great industry, and of a temper fit to struggle with the affairs on all sides that we are to contend with’
http://www.obrienclan.com/coat_2.htmffairs
a family tree?
126 Murrough-an-Toitean:* son of Dermod, d. in 1674; was the sixth Baron and the first Earl of Inchiquin: m. Elizabeth, dau. of Sir William St. Leger, Knt., President, of Munster, and had:
was said of him
Of Murrough-an-Toitean we read in De Vere’s Wail of Thomond
:
“Can it be? Can it be? Can O’Brien be traitor?
Can the great House Dalcassian be faithless to Eire?
The sons of the stranger have wrong’d - let them hate her!
Old Thomond well knows them; they hate her for hire!
Can our Murrough be leagued with the rebels and ranters
‘Gainst his faith and his country, his king and his race?
Can he bear the low wailings, the curses, the banters?
There’s a scourge worse than these - the applause of the base!
….”
so one person sees one way another another way.
http://www.dalcassiansept.com/pedigrees/pedigree-2.htm
Lord Inchiquin.
He took command of the English Auxiliary forces that landed in Portugal in July 1662. Pay was a big problem as the troops thought they would receive the same rate as paid by Charles, but they were wrong. Inchiquin was aware of this, and feeling that they may make the sailors take them back, swore his officers to secrecy.
Inchiquin accused Macedo, the Secretary of State, of designing their destruction and left for England around October 1662.