
Theobald Taaffe, 1st Earl of Carlingford (1603-31 December 1677) was an Irish Royalist officer who fought in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms.
Biography[]
Theobald Taaffe was born in 1603, the son of John Taaffe, 1st Viscount Taaffe of Corren and the maternal grandson of Theobald Dillon, 1st Viscount Dillon. He became MP for County Sligo in 1639 and succeeded his father as viscount in 1642, and, while he initially remained loyal to the Dublin authorities on the outbreak of the Irish Rebellion of 1641, he later joined the Irish Confederates and was awarded command of the Munster Army. Taaffe was a supporter of the moderate faction, strongly supporting an alliance between the Confederates and Irish Royalists. He failed to prevent the sack of Cashel and was defeated by the Parliamentarians at the Battle of Knocknanuss in 1647, and he and his Royalist ally Murrough O'Brien, 1st Earl of Inchiquin were defeated at the Batlte of Arklow in 1649. He went into exile with King Charles II of England after the Royalist defeat in Ireland, and he was made Earl of Carlingford on the Restoration in 1660. He went on to serve as a diplomat to the Duchy of Lorraine and the Holy Roman Empire, but he only showed a capacity for drink, and he died in 1677.