Charles MacCarty, Viscount Muskerry

Charles MacCarthy, Viscount Muskerry (Irish: Cathal Mac Cárthaigh; died 3 June 1665) was an Irish noble and a soldier in French and later English service. He belonged to the MacCarthy of Muskerry dynasty.

Born the eldest son of Donagh MacCarthy, 1st Earl of Clancarty, after his family fled from Ireland following the end of the Irish Confederate Wars, Charles MacCarthy enlisted in the French military winning distinction in the Low Countries campaign during the Franco-Spanish War. Following the end of the war, he joined English forces during the Second Anglo-Dutch War serving under the Duke of York until he was killed during the Battle of Lowestoft on 3 June 1665 and later buried at Westminster Abbey. He married Lady Elizabeth FitzGerald, daughter of George FitzGerald, 16th Earl of Kildare and his wife Joan Boyle, herself daughter of Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork. Lord and Lady Muskerry figure prominently in an amusing anecdote told in chapter 7 of Anthony Hamilton's semi-fictional Mémoires du comte de Gramont (1704–10).

References

• Webb, Alfred. A Compendium of Irish Biography: Comprising Sketches of Distinguished Irishmen and of Eminent Persons Connected with Ireland by Office or by Their Writings, New York: Lemma Publishing Corporation, 1970.