Oliver FitzWilliam, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell

Oliver FitzWilliam, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell (died 11 April 1667) was an Irish nobleman.

His father was Thomas FitzWilliam, 1st Viscount FitzWilliam (1581–1650). His mother was Margaret Plunkett, daughter of Oliver Plunkett, 4th Baron Louth; through his grandmother he was a member of the powerful Bagenal family. As a younger son he did not expect to inherit the title or estates; like many young men in his position he read law, studying at Gray's Inn, and then resolved on a military career. With the help of James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde he became a Colonel in the French Army and showed both courage and military skill. On the death of his eldest brother Richard he became heir to the title.

Civil War[]

He was both a Catholic and a royalist, and enjoyed the confidence of Queen Henrietta Maria, who recommended him to Charles I as "a man deserving of every encouragement." In 1645 he tried to get the Confederation of Kilkenny to support King Charles I in the English Civil War on the grounds that their demands for full civic rights to be restored to Roman Catholics would be met.^[1] He fought with the Confederates against the Parliamentarians in 1645–6, and led a successful assault on Roscommon Castle in 1646. In 1649 he was imprisoned in London but soon released. After some time in France he was allowed to return to England through the pleas of his brother-in-law John Holles, 2nd Earl of Clare. He is said to have been one of the few Irishmen whom Oliver Cromwell admired, and was also on good terms with Oliver's son Henry Cromwell, although Henry refused his request to be allowed to recover his principal residence, Merrion Castle. During the Commonwealth he seems to have played a careful double game - his second marriage into the Holles family put him in the Parliamentarian camp, and enabled him to hold on to much of his property apart from Merrion Castle itself, but he was also suspected of working for the Restoration of Charles II. On the other hand his relationship with Oliver Cromwell was sufficiently close that he offered to arrange a reconciliation between Oliver and the regicide Edmund Ludlow, when the two men. quarreled irrevocably when Cromwell assumed the title Lord Protector, leading to Ludlow's arrest. Oliver seems to have lost the goodwill of Ormonde, to whom as a rule any friend was a friend for life.

Restoration[]

At the Restoration he was in high favour at Court and was created Earl of Tyrconnell. His favour at Court did not however translate into a leading place in Irish public life. Whether for personal reasons (he is said to have been very unpopular) or because his friendly relations with Henry Cromwell had made him powerful enemies at home, he had great difficulty recovering the Merrion estates, and despite a personal plea on his behalf by the King, it was not until 1663 that he recovered all his properties. He had the humiliation of being declared a delinquent by Parliament, but the Privy Council of Ireland, at the King's request, granted him a full pardon for any crimes he allegedly committed during the Cromwellian era. He devoted his last years to renovating Merrion Castle.

He died at Merrion Castle on 11 April 1667, and was buried on 12 April 1667 in the Fitzwilliam Chapel in Donnybrook church. His widow, Eleanor, returned to England, and died there in 1681.

Family[]

He married firstly Dorothy Brereton of Malpas, a cousin of Sir William Brereton, 1st Baronet (her sister Jane married Oliver's brother Christopher), secondly a Miss Penruddock, and thirdly Lady Eleanore Holles, daughter of John Holles, 1st Earl of Clare and his wife Anne Stanhope.^[2]

He had no issue by any of his marriages. On his death the Earldom of Tyrconnell became extinct, and the viscountcy passed to his brother William.

References[]