Richard Talbot , 1st Earl of Tyrconnell Richard Talbot , 1st Earl of Tyrconnell PC ( 1630 – 14 August 1691 ) was an Irish royalist and Jacobite soldier . Life . 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 . 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 . Talbot had been introduced to Charles II and James , Duke of York ( later James II ) , when they were exiles in Flanders , as a result of the English Civil War . Talbot then lived like many other royalist refugees , partly by casual military service , but also by acting as a subordinate agent in plots to upset the Commonwealth and murder Cromwell . He was arrested in London in November 1655 and was examined by Cromwell . Once more he escaped , but it was said by his enemies that he was bribed by Cromwell , with whom one of his brothers was certainly in correspondence . He was actively engaged in an infamous intrigue to ruin the character of Anne Hyde , the Duke ' s wife - to - be , but continued in James ' s employment and saw some service at sea in the naval wars with the Dutch . After the Restoration he continued to have a place in the household of the Duke of York . Talbot accumulated money by acting as agent for Irish Roman Catholics who sought to recover their confiscated property . He was arrested for supposed complicity in the Popish Plot agitation in 1678 , but was allowed to go into exile . After the accession of James II in 1685 , he was created Baron of Talbotstown , Viscount Baltinglass and Earl of Tyrconnell ( 2nd creation ) , and sent as commander in chief of the forces in Ireland . In this capacity and as Lord Deputy of Ireland ( 1687 – 88 ) he placed Catholics in positions of control in the state and the militia , which the Duke of Ormonde had previously organised . Consequently the entire Roman Catholic population sided with James II in the Glorious Revolution . Thus , in 1689 , when James landed at Dublin with his French officers , Tyrconnell had an Irish army ready to assist him . His role in the Revolution was satirised in the contemporary folk song , " Lillibullero " . After James came to Ireland , he created him Duke of Tyrconnell and Marquess of Tyrconnell , titles recognised only by the Jacobites . After defeat in the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 , Tyrconnell went to France for aid . He returned to Ireland in 1691 , but died of apoplexy just before the fall of Limerick . Some contemporary accounts say that he was poisoned , but this is unsubstantiated . His widow , Frances , and daughter Charlotte remained in France , where Charlotte married her kinsman , William Talbot of Haggardstown , called 3rd Earl of Tyrconnell in the Jacobite peerage . Tyrconnell ' s brother Peter was the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin from 1669 to 1680 . He is believed to be buried in the " Old Carton " graveyard . His estate in nearby Carton was uncompleted before he died . Tyrconnell Tower on this site was originally meant to be his mausoleum but was also unfinished . References .