The title Viscount Taaffe, of Corren, was created in the Peerage of Ireland in 1628, together with the subsidiary title Baron Ballymote. From the 18th century onwards, the Viscounts Taaffe also held the title Count (Graf) Taaffe in the Holy Roman Empire. All these titles are now extinct.
Contents |
From the 13th century, the Taaffes had been one of the leading families in Ireland. In 1628, Sir John Taaffe was raised to the Peerage as Viscount Taaffe and Baron Ballymote. He left fifteen children, of whom the eldest, Theobald, who succeeded him as 2nd Viscount Taaffe, took a prominent part in the English Civil War and on the Restoration was created Earl of Carlingford. The 1st Earl was succeeded by his second son Nicholas, who had served in the Anglo-Spanish War, as 2nd Earl. He was killed at the 1690 Battle of the Boyne fighting for the former King James II of England against William III of Orange.
The 2nd Earl's younger brother, Francis, succeeded him as 3rd Earl. He was one of the most celebrated men of his time: he studied at the University of Olomouc (Olmütz) in the Imperial Margraviate of Moravia, and served at the Imperial Court of Emperor Ferdinand III as well as under Duke Charles IV of Lorraine, whose most intimate friend he became. He rose to be a Field Marshal in the Habsburg Army, having greatly distinguished himself at the 1683 Battle of Vienna and in the other Turkish campaigns, and was a member of the Order of the Golden Fleece. He was sent on many important diplomatic missions, and at the end of his life was Chancellor and Chief Minister to the Duke of Lorraine.
Notwithstanding the Jacobite connections of his family, the 3rd Earl's title to the Earldom of Carlingford was confirmed by King William III, and the attainder and forfeiture of the estates incurred by his elder brother was repealed. This favour he owed to his position at the court of the Holy Roman Emperor, William's most important ally in the Grand Alliance. On his death, the title and estates went to his nephew Theobald, who succeeded as 4th Earl. His father had fallen during the 1689 Siege of Derry, and he had himself served with distinction in the Habsburg Army.
On his death in 1738, the Earldom of Carlingford became extinct; both the Imperial and Irish estates as well as the Viscountcy of Taaffe went to a cousin, Nicholas, who succeeded as 6th Viscount. Like so many of his family, he was brought up in Lorraine, was Chancellor of Duke Leopold and passed into the Habsburg Army; he fought in the Silesian Wars against Prussia, rose to the rank of a Field Marshal, and was created Count Taaffe by Empress Maria Theresa, who elevated him and all of his descendants to the title of Graf or Gräfin. His Irish estates were, however, claimed under the Act of 1703 by a Protestant heir: a lawsuit followed, which was ended by a compromise embodied in a private Act of Parliament, by which the estates were sold and one-third of the value given to him. With the money he acquired the castle of Ellischau (Nalžovy) in Bohemia; he had also inherited other property in the Habsburg dominions. He was naturalised in Bohemia, and left on record that the reason for this step was that he did not wish his descendants to be exposed to the temptation of becoming Protestants so as to avoid the operation of the Penal Laws. A Committee of Privileges of the House of Lords in 1860 recognized the right of the family to hold the Irish title.
In 1919, the 12th Viscount was deprived of the Viscountcy following the enactment of the Titles Deprivation Act 1917. Under the provisions of the Act, his heirs were entitled to petition for restoration of the title. However, on the death of the 8th Count Taaffe in 1967, no such heirs remained, and the title effectively became extinct. The Taaffes had also been deprived of their comital title in 1919, when all noble titles were abolished by law in the Republic of German Austria.
See Würzbach, Biographisches Lexicon Österreichs. Memoirs of the Family of Taaffe (Vienna, 1856), privately printed; article in the Contemporary Review (1893), by EB Lanin. The Prague Politik published in December 1904 contains some interesting correspondence collected from Taaffe's papers.