Charles O'Brien, (17 March 1699 – 9 September 1761), titular 6th Viscount Clare and later titular 8th Earl of Thomond, was an Irish military officer in French service (he was made a Marshal of France), known to posterity as the Maréchal de Thomond.
When his cousin, Henry O'Brien, 8th Earl of Thomond, offered the Thomond estates to Charles on the condition of his conversion to Protestantism, he refused, and so he willed them to the young son of William O'Brien, 4th Earl of Inchiquin, Murrough, with remainder to Percy Wyndham.[2] Murrough's death in 1741 caused the reversion to become effective, with the estates leaving O'Brien hands.[3]
O'Brien was invested as a Knight, L'Ordre du Saint-Esprit of France on 2 February 1746 at the chapel of Versailles, Île-de-France, France. He held the office of Governor of Neuf-Brisach in Alsace, and was Commander-in-Chief of the province of Languedoc. In 1757 he was made a Marshal of France.[4]
Personal life
In 1755, O'Brien married Marie Genevieve Louise Gautier, daughter of François Gautier, marquis de Chiffreville. They had three children:[1]
Lady Marie O'Brien (1760–1786), who died unmarried.[1]
Lord Thomond died on 9 September 1761, aged 62, at Montpellier, France.[1] He was succeeded by his only son, Charles upon whose death the titles became extinct in 1774.[5]
.svg){kind=small}
