Beauchamp Bagenal (1741 – 1 May 1802) was an Irish rake, buck[clarification needed], duelist, and politician.
He was born in County Carlow in 1741, son of Walter Bagenal, and his second wife Eleanor Beauchamp, and inherited the family estates aged 11.
Bagenal gained a reputation as a hell-raiser and serial heartbreaker, and was reportedly described as the handsomest man in Ireland.
[1] According to Jonah Barrington, on his Grand Tour, Bagenal: fought a prince, jilted a princess, intoxicated the Doge of Venice, carried off a duchess from Madrid, scaled the walls of a convent in Lisbon and fought a duel in Paris,[2]The jilted Princess referred to above was Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, afterwards married to George III of Great Britain At his home, Dunleckney, Bagenalstown, County Carlow, he earned the nickname "King" Bagenal based on his lavish entertaining and the autocratic manner with which he ran what was virtually a court.
He fought as few as a dozen duels, a derisory number compared to the great duellists of his day.