Carey Dillon, 5th Earl of Roscommon

Carey or Cary Dillon, 5th Earl of Roscommon, PC (Ire) (1627–1689) was an Irish nobleman and professional soldier of the seventeenth century.

[10] In 1630; while Carey was a boy, his grandfather, his father and his eldest half-brother were staunch supporters of Thomas Wentworth, later Earl of Strafford, who was appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland in 1632.

Strafford, however, also had powerful enemies and was impeached by the English Parliament in November 1640 and after this failed, a bill of attainder was brought against him, which was passed in May 1641 and signed by the king on 10 May.

As a younger son with his livelihood to earn, in the war-torn Ireland of the 1640s and 1650s, a military career was an obvious choice for him: he was made a captain by the age of seventeen.

[19] In the early 1660s one of Pepys's closest friends was a young clergyman called Daniel Butler (nicknamed "Monsieur l'Impertinent", apparently because he never stopped talking).

Pepys admired both of Butler's sisters, especially Frances (nicknamed "la belle Boteler"), whom he thought was one of the greatest beauties in London.

Following the Restoration of Charles II, Dillon entered politics, sitting in the Irish House of Commons as MP for Banagher in the Parliament of 1661–1666.

[28] The following year Lord Roscommon, as he was now, clashed bitterly with Richard Talbot, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell,[29] the rising Roman Catholic Royal favourite.

Tyrconnell, as Lieutenant-General of the Irish Army, had removed all the Protestant officers of the regiment stationed at Kilkenny.

Roscommon, with it seems considerable justification, challenged his legal right to do so, and when the matter came before the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Lord Clarendon, Roscommon called Tyrconnell a liar to his face: this was a shrewd blow since Tyrconnell had the unfortunate nickname "Lying Dick Talbot".

[30][31] The "Kilkenny affair" caused something of a furore in Ireland, but did not damage Tyrconnell's standing at the English Court.

Carey and Katherine had a son: —and two daughters: The sisters were so many years older than their brother that it is possible they were children of an earlier marriage.

Having served the Stuart dynasty with notable loyalty both during the Civil War and after the Restoration, Lord Roscommon, like many of the Irish Protestant ruling class, changed sides after the downfall and flight to France of James II in 1688.