Charles Moore, 2nd Viscount Moore of Drogheda

Charles Moore, 2nd Viscount Moore of Drogheda (1603-1643) was an Irish aristocrat noted for his leadership of Irish Royalist forces in northern Leinster during the early stages of the Irish Confederate Wars.

Background

He was the son of Garret Moore, 1st Viscount Moore, a landowner in County Louth with connections with many prominent Old English families of The Pale. Moore was a Protestant, unlike many of his relatives who remained Catholic. Moore had helped broker the Treaty of Mellifont in 1603, which brought an end to Tyrone's Rebellion. When Garret died in 1627, his Viscountcy and estates including Mellifont Abbey passed to his eldest son Charles.

Irish Rebellion

Following the outbreak of the Irish Rebellion, Moore's house at Mellifont was captured on 21 November 1641 as a prelude to a rebel Siege of Drogheda.^[1] Moore was one of the leaders of a relief force from Dublin that broke the siege.

In 1643 Moore commanded troops from Dublin sent to resist an advance into Leinster by the Ulster Army of the Irish Confederates commanded by Owen Roe O'Neill. On 7 August Moore confronted O'Neill at the Battle of Portlester in County Meath. During the fighting he was killed by an artillery shot, said by some accounts to have been personally aimed and fired by his opponent O'Neill. Following Moore's death, the Protestant forces retreated with his body. O'Neill was unable to follow up his success by advancing towards Dublin.^[2]

His unusual death was the inspiration for a similar scene in the 1645 play Cola's Furie.^[3] Moore was succeeded by his son, Henry who was made Earl of Drogheda by Charles II following the Restoration.

References

Bibliography

• Casway, Jerrold I. Owen Roe O'Neill and the Struggle for Catholic Ireland. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1984.
• Perceval-Maxwell, Michael. Outbreak of the Irish Rebellion of 1641. McGill-Queen's Press, 1994.
• Randall, Dale. Winter Fruit: English Drama, 1642-1660. University Press of Kentucky. 1995.