Francis Taaffe, 3rd Earl of Carlingford (1639 – August 1704), was 4th Viscount Taaffe, of Corren, and 4th Baron of Ballymote and an army commander and politician of Irish descent in the service of Emperor Ferdinand III in the Austrian capital Vienna and later of Duke Charles IV of Lorraine in Nancy.
After the death of his elder brother, Francis received the titles of Earl of Carlingford and Viscount Taaffe, both belonging to the Peerage of Ireland.
By the agency of King Charles, Francis Taaffe studied at the University of Olomouc in Moravia, and became a page at the Imperial court in Vienna.
He began a military career as a commander in the Imperial forces during the Franco-Dutch War and became a most intimate friend of the Lorrainian duke Charles IV, who from 1670 had to cope with the occupying troops of King Louis XIV of France.
Lord Carlingford was sent on many important diplomatic missions, and at the end of his life was chancellor and chief minister to Duke Leopold of Lorraine.