Charles MacCarthy, 1st Viscount Muskerry

Charles, also called Cormac, was probably born in the 1570s in County Cork, southern Ireland.^[b] Living in a bilingual context,^[9] he had two names, Charles in English and Cormac in Irish. He was the eldest son of Cormac MacDermot MacCarthy and his wife Mary Butler.^[10] As his father's name also was Cormac, he was distinguished as "Cormac oge", the younger,^[c] whereas his father usually included the patronymic "MacDermot" (son of Dermot) in his name. MacDermot (Charles's father) was the 16th Lord of Muskerry.^[d] MacDermot had conformed to the established religion, in other words: become a Protestant, by adhering to the Church of Ireland.^[23] Charles's father's family were the MacCarthys of Muskerry,^[24] a Gaelic Irish dynasty that had branched from the MacCarthy-Mor line in the 14th century^[25][26][27] when a younger son received Muskerry as appanage.^[28]

Charles's mother was the second daughter of Theobald Butler, 1st Baron Cahir.^[29][30] His mother's family was a cadet branch of the Butler Dynasty. The Butlers were Old English and descended from Theobald Walter, who had been appointed chief butler of Ireland by King Henry II in 1177.^[31] Charles was one of four siblings.^[32] see the list in his father's article.

MacCarthy seems to have been a protestant in his youth but later became Catholic.^[15][33][e]

MacCarthy married Margaret O'Brien in about 1590.^[36][39] She was a daughter of Donogh O'Brien, 4th Earl of Thomond, a protestant.^[40] Her family, the O'Briens, were another Gaelic Irish dynasty, descending, in her case, from Brian Boru, a medieval high king of Ireland.^[41]

Charles and Margaret had two sons:

1. Cormac, disabled,^[42] died young^[43] predeceasing his father^[44]
2. Donough (1594–1665), 1st earl of Clancarty and 2nd viscount of Muskerry^[45]

—and five daughters (in an unordered list as their birth order is poorly known):^[f]

• Julia, also called Sheela (d. 1633), married Sir Valentine Browne, 1st Baronet of Molahiffe, County Kerry, as his 2nd wife^[50]
• Mary, the 2nd daughter, married 1st Sir Valentine Browne, 2nd Baronet of Molahiffe,^[51][48] and had Valentine Browne, 1st Viscount Kenmare as son^[52]
• Elena, married John Power^[53] and was ancestress of Frances Power, who married Richard Trench and was mother of William Trench, 1st Earl of Clancarty of the 2nd creation^[54][55]
• Eleanor, married in 1636 Charles MacCarthy Reagh,^[56][57] son of Donal MacCarthy Reagh;^[58] they had three sons: Finin, Donal, Donogh,^[59] and a daughter, Ellen, who married John de Courcy, 21st Baron Kingsale^[60][61]
• Helen, the 5th daughter, married Colonel Edmund Fitzmaurice, eldest son of the second marriage of Thomas Fitzmaurice, 18th Baron Kerry^[62]

MacDermot (MacCarthy's father) fought in Tyrone's Rebellion, also called the Nine Years' War, which lasted from 1593 to 1603. He sided with the English and fought the Spanish during the Siege of Kinsale in 1601.^[63] Most of MacCarthy's life fell into the subsequent period of almost 40 years of peace in southern Ireland from the Treaty of Mellifont,^[64] which ended the Nine Years' War, to the Irish Rebellion of 1641.^[65][66]

In 1616 MacCarthy succeeded his father as the 17th Lord of Muskerry.^[67][68] Lord Deputy Oliver St John knighted him in 1620.^[69][70] In 1628 Charles I, King of Ireland, England, and Scotland, created him Baron Blarney and Viscount Muskerry. The titles were probably bought.^[71] They had a special remainder^[72] that designated his second son Donough as successor, excluding his eldest son Cormac, who was alive at the time but disabled.^[42]

This is the first creation of the title Muskerry. The title would become extinct with the attainder of the 4th earl in 1691^[73] but be resurrected in the 2nd creation as Baron Muskerry in favour of Robert Tilson Deane, 1st Baron Muskerry in 1781.^[74]

Muskerry, as he was now, sat in the House of Lords during the two Irish parliaments of King Charles I.^[75][76][77] The Irish Parliament of 1634–1635 was opened on 14 July 1634^[78][79] by the new Lord Deputy of Ireland, Thomas Wentworth^[80] (the future Lord Strafford), who had taken office in July 1633.^[81] Muskerry took his seat immediately at the opening.^[75] Wentworth dissolved parliament on 18 April 1635.^[82]

When his first wife died, Muskerry remarried in or after 1636 to Ellen Roche, eldest daughter of David Roche, 7th Viscount Fermoy,^[83] a zealous Catholic.^[84][85] It was also her second marriage. She was the widow of Donal MacCarthy Reagh of Kilbrittain,^[86][87] Prince of Carbery in the Gaelic tradition, with whom she had had a son called Charles MacCarthy Reagh of Kilbrittain, who had in 1636 before his father's death,^[88][89][90] married Eleanor, one of Muskerry's daughters from his first marriage.^[91][56] Muskerry thus married the mother of one of his sons-in-law.^[g]

Muskerry was a Catholic during his later life.^[33] He probably converted after the death of his first wife,^[15] whose father had been a protestant.^[40]

The Irish Parliament of 1640–1649^[h] was opened on 16 March 1640 by Christopher Wandesford, whom Strafford, as Wentworth was now called, had appointed lord deputy after he himself had been promoted lord lieutenant.^[98][99] Strafford arrived two days later.^[98] In its first session the parliament unanimously voted four subsidies of £45,000^[100] (about £10,100,000 in 2023^[101]) to raise an Irish army of 9000^[102] for use by the King against the Scots in the Second Bishops' War. While attending parliament, Muskerry probably stayed at his new townhouse built about that time on Dublin's College Green.^[103]

On 3 April 1640 Strafford left Ireland.^[104] Wandesford stood in for him. The Commons formed a commission of grievances that gathered evidence for Strafford's abuse of power. They sent a delegation to Westminster where they submitted the grievances to the King. This delegation included Muskerry's son Donough.^[105]

Unlike the Commons, the Lords had not acted on grievances during the third parliamentary session, but afterwards some of them decided to send Lords Muskerry, Gormanston, Dillon, and Kilmallock to London to submit their grievances to the King.^[76][77] Parliament met again on 26 January 1641.^[106] Lord Deputy Wandesford had died on 3 December 1640,^[107] and the Irish government devolved to Lords Justices, first Robert Dillon and Parsons,^[108] but in February 1641 Borlase replaced Roscommon.^[109]

The House of Lords recognised its members who had gone to London as constituting one of its committees^[110] and excused their absence.^[111] On 18 February 1641 the lords' grievances were written up in 18 articles. The lords complained that Strafford had overtaxed them.^[112]

Muskerry died on 20 February 1641 in London during his parliamentary mission.^[113] He was buried in Westminster Abbey.^[i] Muskerry was succeeded by his second son Donough. As the ailing elder brother had died some time before,^[44] the title's special remainder did not need to be invoked.^[72] His widow married Thomas, 4th son of Thomas Fitzmaurice, 18th Baron Kerry.^[123]