Charles Moore, 2nd Viscount Moore of Drogheda


Charles Moore, 2nd Viscount Moore of Drogheda was an Irish aristocrat noted for his leadership of Irish Royalist forces in northern Leinster during the early stages of the Irish Confederate Wars.

Background

He was the third but eldest surviving son of Garret Moore, 1st Viscount Moore, a landowner in County Louth with connections with many prominent Old English families of The Pale. Moore was a Protestant, unlike many of his relatives who remained Catholic. Moore had helped broker the Treaty of Mellifont in 1603, which brought an end to Tyrone's Rebellion. When Garret died in 1627, his Viscountcy and estates including Mellifont Abbey passed to his eldest son Charles. Charles's mother was Mary Colley, daughter of Sir Henry Colley of Castle Carbury: her brother, Henry Colley, Jr., was the direct ancestor of the Duke of Wellington. Charles married Alice Loftus, younger daughter of Adam Loftus, 1st Viscount Loftus and Sarah Bathow Meredith, by whom he had at least four surviving children.

Irish Rebellion

Following the outbreak of the Irish Rebellion, Moore's house at Mellifont was captured on 21 November 1641 as a prelude to the rebels' Siege of Drogheda. Moore was one of the leaders of a relief force from Dublin that lifted the siege in March 1642.
In 1643 Moore commanded troops from Dublin sent to resist an advance into Leinster by the Ulster Army of the Irish Confederates commanded by Owen Roe O'Neill. On 7 August Moore confronted O'Neill at the Battle of Portlester in County Meath. During the fighting he was killed by an artillery shot, said by some accounts to have been personally aimed and fired by his opponent O'Neill.
Following Moore's death, the Protestant forces retreated with his body.
O'Neill was unable to follow up his success by advancing towards Dublin.
His unusual death was the inspiration for a similar scene in the 1645 play, Cola's Furie by Henry Burkhead. Moore was succeeded by his son, Henry who was made Earl of Drogheda by Charles II following the Restoration.