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 a veteran of the Battle of Kinsale ( 1601 ) who subsequently settled in Ireland . Irish Rebellion and Civil War . 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 . The Cromwellian Conquest . The execution of Charles I in 1649 led local Protestant and Scottish forces in Ulster to join the Duke of Ormond ' s royalist coalition , thus isolating Coote . He defended Derry against a protracted siege ( March – August 1649 ) with the unlikely assistance of the Ulster army under Owen Roe O ' Neill . After the New Model Army under Cromwell captured Drogheda , a force of several thousand Parliamentarians under Robert Venables headed north into Ulster , where Coote joined Venables to destroy the Scottish Ulster Royalists at the Battle of Lisnagarvey . By early 1650 , however , the Irish Ulster army ( now under Heber MacMahon , as O ' Neill had died a few months earlier ) became active once more , and Coote was again forced onto the defensive . After being reinforced , he advanced on the Irish army at Scarrifholis and routed them , killing over 2 , 000 soldiers and taking no prisoners . After this , Coote ' s army attempted to take the formidable fortress of Charlemont , which was defended by the remnants of the Ulster army , but his soldiers suffered heavy casualties before the stronghold surrendered . Having largely cleared Ulster , in June 1651 he advanced on Athlone from the North - West , evading a blocking force . Through this movement the town was gained ; the town contained a stone bridge over the Shannon and this action thus opened up Connaught to the Parliamentarian army for the first time . He besieged Galway in the winter of 1651 and it surrendered in April 1652 . Coote inherited the substantial plantation lands of his father in the midlands of Ireland . Restoration . In December 1659 Coote took part in a coup against the government , seizing Dublin Castle . In February 1660 he sent a representative to Charles II , inviting him to make an attempt on Ireland . Coote was a central figure in the Convention Parliament . Following the Restoration Charles II ennobled him Earl of Mountrath in 1660 as a reward for his support . Coote died of smallpox the following year and was buried in Christchurch Cathedral , Dublin . He built Rush Hall near Mountrath , which was the family ' s main residence for several generations . Family . He married firstly Mary Rushe , daughter of Sir Francis Rushe and secondly Jane Hannay , daughter of Sir Robert Hannay and had issue by both wives including Charles who succeeded as 2nd Earl .