however, who advised the dismantling of the works on the Connaught side of Athlone, and St. Ruth's reputation would stand higher if he had done this (Jacobite Narrative, p. 131). On the other hand, Tyrconnel was accused of not making sufficient efforts to stave off the attack on Athlone (Macariæ Excidium, p. 125). The jealousy between the Anglo-Irish of the Pale, of whom Tyrconnel was the leader, and the native Irish was much increased by the appearance of Hugh Balldearg O'Donnell [q. v.]
Tyrconnel was at Limerick on 12 July, when the fatal battle of Aughrim was fought. Galway immediately fell and Tyrconnel was again for treating, it being evident that the defence of Limerick was hopeless. But he did not live to receive orders from James. On 10 Aug. he dined with D'Usson, and was in unusually good spirits, but was struck by apoplexy later in the day. Poison was talked of, but he was a worn-out man, and had long been ailing. He died on the 14th, and was buried in Limerick Cathedral, but there is no monument and the grave is not known. After his death a paper was circulated purporting to be his will, and advising the Irish to make no further resistance. The French king, said the writer, had given them no effectual aid while they were still strong, and would give them still less now, though he might make empty promises in order to prolong the struggle for his own ends. This was pretty much the truth, and the paper had perhaps some effect in inducing D'Usson and Sarsfield to capitulate (Ranke, v. 30). A year later, on 22 Aug. 1692, a funeral service was held in the English convent in the Faubourg St.-Antoine. Lady Tyrconnel had collected most of the English then in Paris, and a still extant sermon was preached which contains some biographical details.
Tyrconnel was a man of commanding stature, and very handsome when young. In his later days he became corpulent and unwieldy. There are three portraits of him at Malahide, of which one is reproduced, with a poor memoir, in the fifth volume of the ‘Ulster Journal of Archæology.’ Berwick says Tyrconnel had no genius for arms, and Clarendon had observed that he could not draw up a regiment (Clarendon and Rochester Correspondence, i. 436). Berwick, however, gives him a good character for valour and common-sense, and does not think him covetous, but ‘infiniment vain et fort rusé.’ He left no legitimate male issue.
Lady Tyrconnel had a French pension for a time, and afterwards made good her claim to a jointure, and she does not appear to have fallen into great poverty, though she may have been temporarily straitened. She seems to have been on pretty good terms with the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough, while Melfort and the English Jacobites abroad disliked her. She lived generally in France or Flanders until 1708 or 1709, when she returned to Dublin, and founded a nunnery for Poor Clares. She fell out of bed on a cold night in the early spring of 1730–1731, and died of exposure, being too weak to rise or call. She must have been ninety years old or very near it. Lady Tyrconnel was buried on 9 March in the Jones family vault in St. Patrick's Cathedral (Mason, Hist. of St. Patrick's, note a). By Tyrconnel she had two daughters, of whom Lady Charlotte was married to the Prince of Vintimiglia. Of her six children by Hamilton, three daughters, Elizabeth, Frances, and Mary, married respectively Viscounts Ross, Dillon, and Kingsland, and were well known in Ireland as the ‘three viscountesses.’
[Of the two chief contemporary Irish authorities, O'Kelly's Macariæ Excidium, ed. O'Callaghan, is hostile to Tyrconnel; while the Jacobite Narrative, ed. Gilbert, known to Macaulay as ‘Light to the Blind,’ is very favourable. Of little value is The Popish Champion, or a complete History of the Life and Military Transactions of Richard, Earl of Tyrconnel,’ 1689. Carte's Ormonde Letters and Life of Ormonde; Négociations de M. le Comte d'Avaux en Irlande; Mémoires du Maréchal de Berwick; Hamilton's Mémoires de Grammont; Story's Impartial Hist. and Continuation; Luttrell's Diary; Clark's Life of James II; King's State of the Protestants under James II; Walker's True Account; Oraison funèbre de … Tyrconnel … par Messire A. Anselm, 1692; Lord Talbot de Malahide's Papers, Hist. MSS. Comm. 8th Rep.; D'Alton's King James's Army List; Burnet's Hist. of his own Time; Macaulay's Hist. of England; Ranke's Hist. of England (Oxford transl.); Stubbs's Hist. of the University of Dublin; G. E. C[okayne]'s Complete Peerage. A collection of Tyrconnel's proclamations is in the British Museum.]
TALBOT, ROBERT (1505?–1558), antiquary, born about 1505 at Thorpe Malsover, Northamptonshire, was son of John Talbot of that place. In 1517, at the age of twelve, he was admitted scholar at Winchester school (Kirby, p. 108), whence on 29 Sept. 1521 he was elected to a fellowship at New College, Oxford. He graduated B.A. on 17 July 1525 and M.A. on 10 Dec. 1529 (Oxford Univ. Reg. i. 140). He was one of the early reformers at Oxford, and got into trouble on that account. Afterwards he renounced protestant opinions, and was apparently made tutor to Lord-chancellor Wriothesley's children (Narr. of the Refor-
