Charles Coote, 1st Earl of Mountrath

Charles Coote, 1st Earl of Mountrath (c. 1610 – 17 December 1661) was an Irish peer, the son of Sir Charles Coote, 1st Baronet, and Dorothea Cuffe, the former being an English veteran of the Battle of Kinsale (1601) who subsequently settled in Ireland.

The younger Coote became an MP for Leitrim in the Irish Parliament between 1634 and 1635 and again in 1640, a year before the outbreak of the Irish rebellion of 1641. The elder Charles Coote was active in the suppression of the Irish insurgents in 1642, launching attacks on Clontarf and County Wicklow in late 1641 in which many civilians died; he was killed in action defending Trim in May 1642.

After the death of his father, Charles Coote also led some of the King's forces under Ormonde against the Confederate army, but was captured defending a stronghold in the Curragh of Kildare by an Irish army led by Castlehaven. He was released during the 1643 cessation of arms.

At this time Coote travelled to England with a number of Protestants to agitate for harsh anti-Catholic measures and an end to the cessation. In Dublin Archbishop Ussher condemned the extremism of Coote and his fellows, but Coote was unbending. The King, however, ignored these demands and so Coote joined the Parliamentarians. Coote was appointed commander of Connaught by the Parliamentarians in 1645. Operating from west Ulster, he temporarily overran the north-west of the province over the next two years.

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