Richard Talbot, 1st Earl of Tyrconnel

Richard Talbot, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell PC (1630 – 14 August 1691) was an Irish royalist and Jacobite soldier. He served as James II's Lord Lieutenant during the Williamite War in Ireland. His administration saw a major purge of Protestant officers from the Irish Army which had previously largely barred Catholics.

The youngest of sixteen children of Sir William Talbot, 1st Baronet, of Carton, and his wife, Alison Netterville, he was descended from an old Norman family that had settled in Leinster in the twelfth century. Like most Old English families in Ireland, the Talbots had adopted the customs of the Irish and had, like the Irish, adhered to the Catholic faith. His eldest brother was Sir Robert Talbot, 2nd Baronet.

He married Katherine Baynton in 1669. They had two daughters, Katherine and Charlotte. Baynton died in 1679. Talbot later married Frances Jennings, sister of Sarah Jennings (the future Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough). He was also known by the nickname "Lying Dick" Talbot.

During the Irish Confederate Wars that followed the Irish Rebellion of 1641, Talbot served in Confederate Ireland's Leinster army as cavalry cornet or junior officer. He was taken prisoner by the Parliamentarians after the battle of Dungans Hill in 1647, but was ransomed back to his own side. In 1649, he also survived the Cromwellian Sack of Drogheda, escaping from the garrison before it was massacred. Shortly after this, he fled Ireland, to join his fellow defeated Royalists in France.

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