Talbot

Talbot, a historic English family, traces its descent from Richard de Talbot, named in Domesday, whose descendant, Richard, was made a baron (died 1306). The sixth baron, Sir John Talbot, Lord-lieutenant of Ireland, was the famous champion of English arms in France during Henry VI.'s reign, and is familiar to readers of Shakespeare. The hero of some forty victories, he was checked at Orleans by Joan of Arc, and routed and taken prisoner at Patay (1429). Created Earl of Shrewsbury (1442), he fell fighting against France in the eightieth year of his age (1453). The sixth and seventh earls are dealt with at SHEFFIELD. The twelfth earl held prominent office under William III., Anne, and George I., as Lord-lieutenant of Ireland, and Lord High Treasurer and Lord Chamberlain of Great Britain. He was made Duke of Shrewsbury in 1694; but the dukedom died with him (1718). The senior male line of earls died out in 1856, and, after a disputed succession, the title passed to Henry John Chetwynd, third Earl Talbot, who became eighteenth Earl of Shrewsbury, and was the grandfather of the present earl. The Lords Talbot de Malahide are a distinct house, and represent a family settled in Ireland in the days of Henry II.