Christopher Plunket

Alfred Webb

A Compendium of Irish Biography

1878

Plunket, Christopher, Earl of Fingall, a prominent actor in the War of 1641-'52. Carte says of his early life: "His father [1st Earl of Fingall] had carried him over very young into England, when he was sent thither as an agent from the Irish; and after bestowing upon him all the breeding which the Court of England could afford, he got him a command in Flanders, where he soon distinguished himself, and was advanced to a better post, being a man of good parts and a pleasant turn of wit, accompanied by a politeness in his behaviour, and a natural civility which flowed towards all men; and these qualities rendering his conversation agreeable, made him universally acceptable to his acquaintance." He took his seat in the Parliament of 1639. Upon the breaking out of the war in 1641 he, with other Catholic lords, offered his services to the Government. These being rejected, he retired to the country, and ultimately threw himself into the struggle on the Catholic side. He was foremost in the gatherings at Tara and Duleek, commanded the cavalry at the siege of Drogheda, and was seven times indicted and outlawed in the course of his career. He was ultimately taken prisoner at the battle of Rathmines, in August 1649, and died shortly afterwards in the Castle of Dublin.

Sources

54. Burke, Sir Bernard: Peerage and Baronetage.

216. Lodge's Peerage of Ireland, Revised and Enlarged by Mervyn Archdall. 7 vols. Dublin, 1789.

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