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David Edwards: The Great Earl of Cork

Richard Boyle, first earl of Cork (1566-1643), ranks among the most famous and infamous figures in the history of early modern Ireland and the wider English Atlantic world. The archetypal crooked land-grabber who made his initial fortune defrauding the crown of hidden revenues; the grasping colonial adventurer who became the biggest landowner in the Munster Plantation and the richest subject of the crown throughout the Three Kingdoms.