 Lord Cork's theopolitical philosophy has been described as 'providentialist' when contrasted with its counterpart which prevailed to the north in parts of Ulster at the time, which is more typically characterised as Presbyterian.Such a comparison of these two standpoints is neither exclusively religious nor secular, a factor which perhaps offers some small insight as to how Lord Cork managed to achieve what seems now the extraordinary feat of gaining strong favour at various times with the leaders on either side of the English Civil War.By his second wife, Catherine Fenton, daughter of Sir Geoffrey Fenton and his wife Alice Weston, the 1st Earl of Cork had fifteen children