Viscount Taaffe

Viscount Taaffe was created in the Peerage of Ireland in 1628. The Viscount bears the subsidiary title of Baron of Ballymote (1628). They are also Reichsgraf (Count of the Holy Roman Empire).

From the 13th century the Taaffes had been one of the leading families in Ireland. In 1628, Sir John Taaffe was raised to the peerage as Baron of Ballymote and Viscount Taaffe of Corren. He left fifteen children, of whom the eldest, Theobald, took a prominent part in the English Civil War and on the Restoration was created Earl of Carlingford.

Theobald was succeeded in the title by his second son Nicholas, 2nd Earl of Carlingford, (4th Viscount Taaffe) who had served in the Spanish wars and was killed at the Battle of the Boyne fighting for James II against William III.

The next brother, Francis, (4th Viscount Taaffe), was one of the most celebrated men of his time: he was brought up at Olmütz, at the imperial court, and in the service of Duke Charles of Lorraine, whose most intimate friend he became. He rose to the highest rank in the Austrian army, having greatly distinguished himself at the Battle of Vienna and in the other Turkish campaigns, and was a member of the Order of the Golden Fleece. He was sent on many important diplomatic missions, and at the end of his life was chancellor and chief minister to the duke of Lorraine.

Notwithstanding the Jacobite connections of his family, Francis' title to the earldom of Carlingford was confirmed by William III, and the attainder and forfeiture of the estates incurred by his brother was repealed. This favor he owed to his position at the court of the emperor, William's most important ally. On his death the title and estates went to his nephew Theobald Taaffe, 5th Earl of Carlingford (5th Viscount Taaffe), whose father had fallen during the Siege of Derry, and who himself had served with distinction in the Austrian army.

On his death, the title of Earl of Carlingford became extinct; both the Austrian and Irish estates as well as the Irish viscountcy went to a cousin, Nicholas Taaffe, 6th Viscount Taaffe (1677–1769). Like so many of his family, he was brought up in Lorraine and passed into the Austrian army; he fought in the Silesian wars, rose to be Field Marshal, and was made a Count of the Holy Roman Empire, which entitled him and all of his descendants to the title of "Graf" (male form) or "Gräfin" (female form). His Irish estates were, however, claimed under the Act of 1703 by a Protestant heir: a lawsuit followed, which was ended by a compromise embodied in a private act of parliament, by which the estates were sold and one-third of the value given to him. With the money he acquired the castle of Ellischau, in Bohemia; he had also inherited other property in the Austrian dominions. He was naturalized in Bohemia, and left on record that the reason for this step was that he did not wish his descendants to be exposed to the temptation of becoming Protestants so as to avoid the operation of the Penal Laws. A Committee of Privileges of the House of Lords in 1860 recognized the right of the family to hold the Irish title.

Viscounts Taaffe (1628)

• Sir John Taaffe, 1st Viscount Taaffe (d. before 1641/2).
• Theobald Taaffe, 1st Earl of Carlingford, 2nd Viscount Taaffe (d. 1677)
• Nicholas Taaffe, 2nd Earl of Carlingford, 3rd Viscount Taaffe (d. 2 July 1690)
• Francis Taaffe 3rd Earl of Carlingford, 4th Viscount Taaffe (1639–1704)
• Theobald Taaffe 4th Earl of Carlingford, 5th Viscount Taaffe (d. 24 November 1738), earldom extinct
• Count Nicholas Taaffe, 6th Viscount Taaffe (c. 1685–1769). General Feldwachtmeister, chancellor of duke Leopold of Lorraine. He entered Austrian service and was created a count (Graf) of the Holy Roman Empire. He lost his Irish estates to a Protestant relative under the reign of Queen Anne.
• Count Rudolph Taaffe, 7th Viscount Taaffe (6 October 1762 – 7 June 1830), returned to Ireland and was summoned to Parliament in 1798 but as a Roman Catholic could not take his seat.
• Count Francis John Charles Joseph Rudolph Taaffe, 8th Viscount Taaffe (23 May 1788 – 8 February 1849), served in the Austrian army.
• Count Louis Patrick John Taaffe, 9th Viscount Taaffe (25 December 1791 – 21 December 1855), was a chamberlain to the Austrian Emperor.
• Count Charles Rudolph Francis Joseph Clement Taaffe, 10th Viscount Taaffe (26 April 1823 – 19 November 1873).
• Count Eduard (Edward) Francis Joseph Taaffe, 11th Viscount Taaffe (1833–1895), served as Prime Minister of Austria 1868–1870 and 1879–1893.
• Count Heinrich Taaffe, 12th Viscount Taaffe (1872–1928). In 1917 his Irish peerage became forfeit, under terms of the Titles Deprivation Act, in consequence of having borne arms against Britain in World War I. Under the terms of that Act, his successors may petition to the British Crown for the restoration of the peerage, but none of them have in fact done so. In 1919 he also lost his title of Count when the newly established Republic of Austria abolished nobility and outlawed the use of noble titles.

References

See Würzbach, Biographisches Lexicon Österreichs. Memoirs of the Family of Taaffe (Vienna, 1856), privately printed; article in the Contemporary Review (1893), by EB Lanin. The Prague Politik published in December 1904 contains some interesting correspondence collected from Taaffe's papers.

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.