The family acquired wealth and substantial lands,[1] but they played a curiously obscure role in Irish history.
John Nangle, 16th Baron of Navan, like most of the Anglo-Irish nobility of the time, supported the Yorkist pretender to the Crown, Lambert Simnel, and after the defeat of Simnel's cause at the Battle of Stoke, he shared in the general pardon issued by Henry VII of England.
Thomas, 19th Baron, took part in the Irish Rebellion of 1641, and signed the "Catholic Remonstrance" issued at Trim, County Meath in March 1642 addressed to King Charles I of England.
John, 21st Baron, was a supporter of James II of England: after the Glorious Revolution he was attainted and the Nangles left Ireland for good.
Francis, 24th and last Baron, spent many years serving in the Austrian Army; he died unmarried in Vienna in 1781, when the title became extinct.