Boyle, ROGER, soldier and statesman, was born in 1621. The third son of the Earl of Cork, he was made for his father's services Baron Broghill in 1627. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and on the outbreak of the Civil War naturally took the royalist side; but after the death of the king, came under the personal influence of Cromwell, and distinguished himself by his conduct in the Irish campaign, especially under the eye of his chief in the desperate struggle at Clonmel. In Cromwell's (1654) parliament he sat for Cork, and in 1656 was named for both that city and Edinburgh, where he had been lord president of the council for a year, and 'gained more,' says Robert Baillie, 'on the affections of the people than all the English that ever were among us.' He became one of Cromwell's special council, and a member of his House of Lords. It was chiefly at his instance that the parliament urged the Protector to assume the title of king, and it was he who proposed a marriage between Cromwell's daughter Frances and Charles II. After Cromwell's death, he tried to support
Richard, but foreseeing that his cause was hopeless, crossed to Ireland, and secured it for the king. Indeed, his letter inviting Charles to land at Cork actually reached the prince before the first message from Monk. Four months after the Restoration, Broghill was made Earl of Orrery. He continued to enjoy the favour of the king, who put a stop to an attempt at his impeachment by the House of Commons in 1668. He died in 1679. He wrote poems, six tragedies, two comedies, a romance entitled Parthenissa (1654), and a Treatise of the Art of War (1677); and enjoyed the friendship of Davenant, Dryden, and Cowley.