Richard Talbot, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell

“ On 15 April 1660 he was elected to the office of physician to poor strangers. As the older physicians died off he gradually became a regular Bath physician, often, as was then the custom, taking patients of distinction to reside in his house. Richard Talbot, earl of Tyrconnel, stayed with him for five weeks from April 1686, and was given Quercetanus's tartar pills for several nights, followed by two quarts of the King's Bath water in the morning for several days, as severe measures were needed to fit him within two or three months to take up his Irish government. ”

“ TALBOT, RICHARD (d. 1449) , archbishop of Dublin and lord chancellor of Ireland, was the younger son of Richard Talbot, fourth baron Talbot, by his wife Ankaret le Strange [see under Talbot, Richard, second Baron Talbot] . John Talbot, the famous earl of Shrewsbury [q. v.] , was an elder brother. Richard was on 6 June 1401 collated to the prebend of Putston Major in Hereford Cathedral, and on 9 June 1407 appointed precentor. ”

“ We mean not to harass our kind reader to actual death by giving him, in totidem verbis, the speech of his Grace, but we will however venture to record, for historical [Pg 235] remembrance, the mode entré:—The Duke of Tyrconnel enters the House of Peers, the Earl of Mount-Leinster bearing the cap of maintenance; the Lord Glandarah carrying the sword of state; the train being supported by Sir Richard Talbot. His Grace made his congés to the cloth of state; then taketh his seat on the throne under the canopy, the Secretary of State standing at his right hand. ”

“ Gerard with intrepid dignity; the Portuguese with all the pusillanimity of an assassin.
"Above stairs," continues Pennant, "sat, in the character of a milliner, the reduced Duchess of Tyrconnel, wife to Richard Talbot, Lord Deputy of Ireland, under James II.; a bigoted Papist, and fit instrument of the designs of the infatuated prince, who had created him Earl before his abdication, and after that, Duke of Tyrconnel. A female, suspected to have been his duchess, after his death, supported herself for a few days (till she was known and otherwise provided for) by the little trade of this place ”

“ TALBOT OF HENSOL, CHARLES TALBOT, 1st Baron (1685–1737) ) lord chancellor of England, was the eldest son of William Talbot, bishop of Durham, a descendant of the 1st earl of Shrewsbury. He was educated at Eton and Oriel College, Oxford, and became a fellow of All Souls College in 1704. He was called to the bar in 1711, and in 1717 was appointed solicitor-general to the prince of Wales. Having been elected a member of the House of Commons in 1720, he became solicitor-general in 1726, and in 1733 he was made lord chancellor and raised to the peerage with the title of Baron Talbot of Hensol. ”

“ From this Richard Talbot the present Lord Talbot de Malahide descends in the twentieth generation, and in the twenty-fourth from Richard Talbot, a Norman baron who held Hereford Castle in the time of the Conqueror. The noble Earls of Shrewsbury and Talbot are of the same stock, but descend from Gilbert, the elder brother of Richard, who was Lord of Eccleswell and Linton, and was living in 1190. ”

“ Both commanded a company of militia against Monmouth at Sedgemoor, and after the battle an argument arose as to which fought the best. The discussion grew heated, swords were drawn, and Talbot was killed. He was the eldest and only surviving son of the knight, and had he left issue, upon the death of the eleventh Earl of Shrewsbury's son, the first and only duke, the Lacock Talbots would by priority have become Earls of Shrewsbury. ”

“ He was continued in his office of solicitorgeneral by James II till the violent measures of Tyrconnel compelled him to seek refuge in England [see Talbot, Richard] . His name was included in the list of persons proscribed by the Irish parliament in 1689, and his estates to the value of 1,700l. per annum sequestered. But after the revolution he was on 30 Oct. 1690 (patent, 21 March 1691) appointed attorney-general of Ireland in the place of Sir Richard Nagle [q. v.] ”

“ In 1447 John Talbot, earl of Shrewsbury, who had succeeded him as lord-lieutenant, accused him of high treason, but the king dismissed the complaint, and by patent, 20 Sept. 1448, declared that 'no one should dare, on pain of his indignation, to revive the accusation or reproach of his conduct.' He died at Atherdee in the county of Louth, on 23 Aug. 1452. He specially interested himself in history and antiquities, and bequeathed lands to the College of Heralds. By his first wife, Johan, daughter of Gerald, fifth earl of Kildare, he had three sons—successively earls of Ormonde—and two daughters ”

“ Richemont offered battle, but Talbot thought it prudent to give him the slip by a night march. In the winter the Duke of York sent him home for reinforcements. He came back an earl, having been created by letters patent, dated 20 May 1442, Earl of Salop (Rot. Parl. vi. 428) ; though the title was taken from the county, not the city, Talbot and his successors always called themselves earls of Shrewsbury. Now constable of France, he recovered Conches, and in November laid siege to Dieppe. ”

“ Tyrconnell was made Baron Talbotstown, Viscount Baltinglass, and Earl of Tyrconnell in 1686, and Duke and Marquis, 30th March, 1689.
From his coming to Ireland, he worked hard for his master and his countrymen. He gradually substituted Jacobite soldiers for the Oliverians, who till then filled the ranks. He increased the army largely, and lent the king 3,000 men in '88. Mischief was done to James's cause by this employment of Irish troops in England. ”

“ It therefore came to pass that one day he requested an honest, foolish Irishman, Dick Talbot, afterwards Duke of Tyrconnel, to attend him in his visit to the lady. He could scarcely have selected a man more unfitted to the occasion, inasmuch as Talbot was wholly devoid of tact, and possessed a mind apt to wander at large at critical moments. He had but recently returned from Portugal, and was not aware my Lord Carnegy had in the meantime become Earl of Southesk, nor had he ever met the lady who shared that title until introduced to her by the duke. ”

“ He had been rhymed at as the Ape with his Clog who had tied Talbot our good dog, in allusion to the fact of Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, having been given up as a hostage to the French after the surrender of Rouen.66.3 He had been reviled as an upstart who had usurped the place of better men, and who systematically thwarted and neutralised all that better men could do. If any one wept for the fall of such a man, it was not on public grounds. ”

“ During his government both England and France were exempt from war, but ravaged by famine and pestilence.
In 1439 the Count of Richemont, the Constable of France, recovered the city of Meaux from Talbot; and Talbot, on his part, accompanied by the Earl of Somerset, besieged Harfleur, and took it after a difficult siege. Talbot was, in fact, at [602] this time, the brave supporter of the English power in France. Two years after this time he raised the siege of Pontoise, which was invested by an army of 12,000 men; but all his valour could not preserve it. ”

“ Said Lord Arthur Talbot. “I have never borne arms against the nation. I have belonged to no camp. I have arrived in England but this evening, and came hither from the vessel.”
The puritans forgot themselves, for they gave a shout of joy.
And even the bitter Captain Richard Forth was heartily glad to find that Arthur Talbot’s blood had not been shed.
So the young bridegroom did not die, and the bride did not therefore destroy him, and his marriage at last took place, sanctified by the glorious truth that he, the bridegroom, had saved a human life. ”

“ Talbot's brother Peter says he denied the charge, ‘swearing and damning himself’ (Spicilegium Ossoriense, ii. 161) ; but another brother, Gilbert, was certainly in correspondence with Thurloe, and the Talbots hung closely together (Cal. of Clarendon Papers, iii. 70) . Richard Talbot served with Condé in June 1656 (ib. p. 141) . In spite of much opposition he was given the command of the Duke of York's regiment, consisting chiefly of Munster men (Carte, Ormonde, ii. 234) . ”

“ The poor Earl could only point to his Queen’s testimonial and console himself by thinking on his family doggerel:—
The Talbot true that is,
And still hath so remaynde,
Lost never noblenesse
By princke of spot distaynde:
On such a fixed fayth
This trustie Talbot stayth. For there is no real honour left to a house divided against itself. The quarrel of man and wife had become the property of the world. Matters must be patched up somehow with the aid of friends and Court officials. Everything, to the eye, was now put on a highly respectable basis. ”

“ Talbot insisted upon practising his vocal powers by singing a hunting song, and was deeply indignant with his friends because they would not join in the very impressive but somewhat common chorus of "Fal de lal lal, fal de lal la." It is impossible to say what Mr. Talbot would have done next; but, much to the horror of the baronet, Mr. Chichester, and Diana—and equally to the surprise of Richard Markham and Walter Sydney—he suddenly lost his balance, and fell heavily upon the floor and into a sound sleep simultaneously. ”

“ Talbot took part in Edward I's expedition into Scotland in 1293, and succeeded to his father's lands in 34 Edward I (1305–6) . As a tenant of Earl Thomas of Lancaster [q. v.] , and as a kinsman, through his mother, of the Earl of Warwick, he was among those who found it necessary to obtain a pardon for their share in the death of Gaveston (Parl. Writs, ii. 68) . He took part, as a follower of William de la Zouche, in the expedition against Scotland in 1319. Early in 1322 he was among the barons who were in arms against the Despensers, and attacked and burnt Bridgenorth (ib. ii. 174–5) . ”

“ On the death of the Earl of March in January 1425 Talbot, who fought at Verneuil and was given the Garter in 1424, again became royal lieutenant in Ireland. He surprised and held to ransom a number of northern chiefs who had come to Trim for an interview with March, and obtained a promise from the O'Connors and O'Byrnes not to prey on the Anglo-Irish any longer. ”

“ The stranger immediately turned towards Richard, to whom he was introduced by the name of Mr. Augustus Talbot.
This gentleman and the baronet then conversed together for a few moments; and Chichester, drawing near Markham, seized the opportunity of observing, "Talbot is an excellent fellow—a regular John Bull—not over polished, but enormously rich and well connected. You will see that he is not more cultivated in mind than in manners; but he would go to the devil to do any one a service; and, somehow or another, you can't help liking the fellow when once you know him." ”

“ Emerging from this narrow way, a broad street of inns and shops expands. On the left is the “Talbot,” an old inn with modern front, and with a long perspective of stables vanishing down its yard into the dim distance. The “Talbot,” it is thought, owes its present name to that Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, who fought and died in the Battle of Northampton, eight miles away, in 1460. As the “Tabard,” it was purchased in 1440 by Archdeacon Sponne, a charitable Rector of Towcester, who gave it to the town, its rent to go in relief of taxation, toward paving, “or for other uses.” ”

“ To most people Mr. Talbot's death was the first intimation of his ever having lived, and one rather resents for the old man the one day's publicity which death enforced upon him. It was indeed well for him that he was dead, for such unwonted excitement would surely have killed him. This important coming and going of undertakers; this populous invasion of friends talking like muffled drums in the front parlour, and passing up and down and up and down the stairs, in and out and in and out of his still room; this throng of neighbours awaiting him in the streets ”

“ O’Kelly and Sheridan both accusing Tyrconnel of favouring the Anglo-Irish and depressing the native Celts. In his memoir, printed at the end of Avaux’s Negotiations, Hugh Balldearg O’Donnell says Tyrconnel was particularly hostile to the Ulster Irish. Light to the Blind, attributed to a Plunket, always praises him. ‘Infiniment vain et fort rusé,’ says Berwick. ‘Talbot s’était dès long-tems porté pour patron des Irlandais opprimés. ”

“ All this does not show much confidence in Lord Talbot's accusation.
In 1440, then sixty-two years of age, he sheathed his sword, put off his armour and returned to England. Few men could show a longer, or a finer, record of war. In 1441 he received from the Duke of York an annuity of £20 a year, 'pro notabili et laudabili servicio ac bono consilio.' He spent the rest of his life partly in his house at Southwark and partly{138} in his castle of Caister, which he built himself: we may very well understand that he was a man of great wealth when we read that the castle covered five acres of land. ”

“ The first Bill of Explanation promoted by the Irish Parliament having been promptly rejected by the English Government, Ormonde and his Council were directed to prepare another. This was drawn by Rainsford and sent away at the end of September. Amendments to it followed a few days later, and Rainsford, who apparently had not had exactly his own way, sent over a separate draft by the same messenger. Consideration of the Bill was deferred until Sir Thomas Clarges arrived with these additional papers, but Richard Talbot gave out that the delay was his doing. ”