Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery (25 April 1621 – 16 October 1679) was an Anglo-Irish soldier and politician. A younger son of the Earl of Cork, the largest landowner in Munster, like many Irish Protestants he supported the Dublin Castle administration during the Irish Confederate Wars, a related conflict of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms.
Boyle was noted for his anti-Catholicism, and consistently opposed concessions to Irish Catholics. A skilled politician, he believed that maintaining the Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland required support from the ruling government in London, whatever its composition. As a result, he held senior positions under the Commonwealth and Charles II, following the 1660 Stuart Restoration.
A noted writer on 17th-century warfare, Boyle helped design Charles Fort outside Kinsale. He also produced a number of plays and poems, which were well regarded by contemporaries but have since faded into obscurity.
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Personal details
Roger Boyle was born 25 April 1621, twelfth born and third surviving son of Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork (1566–1643), and his second wife, Catherine Fenton Boyle (1588–1630). A few months before his 7th birthday, his father granted him the Broghill estate in County Cork, and he was created Baron of Broghill in the Peerage of Ireland.