The Chief Butlers of Ireland and the House of Ormond: An Illustrated Genealogical Guide

Chief Butlers and Earls of Ormond

Chief Butlers and Earls of Ormond An Illustrated Genealogical Guide

edited by

John Kirwan

The Chief Indented, the coat of arms of the Fitzwalters, has been the key element of the arms of their senior descendants, the Chief Butlers of Ireland, later the earls, marquesses and dukes of Ormond(e).

James Arthur Norman Butler (1893–1971) 6th marquess of Ormonde, CVO, MC James Hubert Theobald Charles Butler (1899–1997) 7th Marquess of Ormonde, MBE Theobald (Theo) Richard Fitzwalter Butler (1894–1976) Theobald (Toby) Fitzwalter Butler (1921–1999) Patrick (Paddy) Theobald Tower Butler (1917–2004) 28th Lord Dunboyne Hubert Marshal Butler (1900–1991) The two Lords Ormonde gave us Kilkenny Castle while all six men, through their writings and/or support for The Butler Society, have kept the Butler flag flying internationally.

In Memoriam.

First published in 2018 by Irish Academic Press 10 George’s Street Newbridge Co. Kildare Ireland www.iap.ie © John Kirwan and Ben Murtagh, 2018 9781911024040 (Hardback) British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data An entry can be found on request Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data An entry can be found on request All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved alone, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

Jacket front: Early-nineteenth-century watercolour depicting south-east view of Kilkenny Castle (courtesy of William Murphy).

Jacket back, clockwise from top: Henry O’Neill, Kilkenny Castle (photograph courtesy of Mealys Fine Art); Hans Holbein the Younger, James Butler, 9th earl of Ormond (editor’s collection); Sir Peter Lely, James Butler, 12th earl, 1st marquess and 1st duke of Ormond, KG (OPW Kilkenny Castle); Artist unknown, Lady Margaret Bourke (Borris House, Borris, Co. Carlow); Christian Friedrich Zincke, Elizabeth Crew, Countess of Arran (editor’s collection).

Back flap: The arms of Thomas Butler, 10th earl of Ormond.

Contents

Foreword by John Jennings, Charles Ponsonby and Andrew Soukup ix Preface xiii Acknowledgements

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Introduction

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The Lives

1

Ben Murtagh: Kilkenny Castle: An Outline of its History, Architecture and Archaeology

257

Appendix 1: The history of the inheritance of Lady Frances Susannah Anne Wandesforde

297

Appendix 2: Kilkenny Castle – Its last days as a family home 319 Appendix 3: Will of John Butler of Kilcash 337 Endnotes 343 Index

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Foreword

W

e write as third cousins, great-great-grandsons of John, 2nd Marquess of Ormonde (1808–54).

John Ormonde’s 1825 marquessate (of the third creation, in the peerage of Ireland) had been preceded in 1821 by a UK barony, Ormonde of Llanthony, bringing entitlement to a seat in the UK House of Lords. His other titles were much older: earl of Ormond (1328), earl of Ossory (1528) and viscount Thurles (1536), all of them in the peerage of Ireland.

More ancient still, however, was the dignity of Chief Butler of Ireland, conferred c. 1185 on Theobald Walter, who accompanied Henry II into Ireland.

Theobald’s heir, also Theobald, assumed the surname Le Botiler or Butler c.

1221. Writing in 1967, Paddy Butler, 28th Baron Dunboyne, described the Chief Butlerage of Ireland as the most ancient hereditary dignity still enjoyed by the heirs male of any family in the British Isles, if not in Europe.

For over 500 years, from c 1185 until 1715 (when the 2nd Duke of Ormonde was impeached as a Jacobite, fled to France and subsequently was attainted), the Butlers of Ormond, with their several Butler sub-branches, formed one of Ireland’s two principal noble families. According to Burke’s Peerage, they were, alongside the Geraldines (i.e. the Fitzgeralds), ‘rivals in power and equals in renown’.

This judgement may have reflected the following: • The dignity of Chief Butler of Ireland, one of the great hereditary offices of state, like the Steward, the Constable, the Marshal or the Chamberlain; • The Chief Butlers’ titles, which included an English dukedom from 1682, an Irish dukedom from 1661 and an Irish marquessate (all of them of Ormonde) from 1642; • The Chief Butlers’ close connections with the English Crown; • Seven earls of Ormond being Governor of Ireland (or the equivalent); • The numerous other offices of significance held by Chief Butlers; • The Chief Butlers being seated in the imposing Kilkenny Castle from 1391; • The Chief Butlers’ huge landholdings, in particular in Co. Tipperary and Co. Kilkenny; and

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Foreword • The Chief Butlers’ wealth, which additionally derived from the prisage, a levy on wine imports, approximating to one-tenth, granted to the 1st Chief Butler – though assets were all too often accompanied by liabilities!

From 1791, when the family’s Irish honours were restored to John Butler of Kilcash as 17th earl of Ormond, until 1919, when the 3rd marquess/21st earl died, the Ormonds remained influential, in particular in south east Ireland, but the power had gone.

John Kirwan’s book gives us the life of each of the thirty-one Chief Butlers of Ireland to date, from the first, Theobald Walter c. 1185, to Charles Butler, 7th Marquess of Ormonde, who died in 1997. It is John, too, who had the idea for the book and assembled the splendid illustrations. In so doing, John has extended handsomely the work of now dead Butler scholars, such as Paddy Dunboyne, Theobald Blake Butler and Toby Butler.

John has lived all his life in Co. Kilkenny; works as a freelance historian and archivist; and is Hon. Secretary of the Butler Society, of which he has been a committee member since 1990.

The three authors of this Foreword have lived very different lives (being resident in Australia, the UK and the USA, respectively), but we share a pride in belonging to a family that for more than 500 years was one of the two principal in Ireland and which can, with confidence and in detail, trace its antecedents to the twelfth century. The family, wherever located, is most fortunate that John Kirwan has gathered into one place over 800 years of family history, most of it of wider significance.

We conclude with some family recollections from John Jennings: I first met my great uncle, Charles Butler, 7th and last Marquess of Ormonde, in 1994 when as a family we travelled from Chicago (where he lived) to Kilkenny for the Butler Rally. It was also a joy to meet and be able to spend time with my cousins, Ann, Cynthia, Megan and Andrew.

Uncle Charles was a fine gentleman, then 94 years of age. He put great stead on gentlemanly behaviour. Indeed, his definition of a gentleman was someone who never intentionally offends another – not a bad rule to live by. Although we had never met before, we would chat about family, past and present, and it was as though we had always known each other. My wife, Sharmaine, hit it off well with him, perhaps because his wife, Nan, was also a pretty, tiny redhead.

My maternal grandmother, Constance, was Uncle Charles’ sister and, along with my mother, Bridget, kept up regular correspondence

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Foreword with Butler relations. Bridget was a great repository of Butler family stories and enjoyed recounting them. One such story was how the three younger sons of the 2nd Marquess, including my great-grandfather, Theobald, were once caught playing marbles with the balls from their father’s coronet along the floors of Kilkenny Castle. (Theobald subsequently renounced sin, becoming Rector of Ulcombe, near Maidstone in Kent, a living in the family’s gift.)

In February 1944, my father, Peter Jennings, a pilot officer in Royal Air Force Bomber Command, was killed whilst on an operational mission. I was born six weeks later. Aged 22, Bridget was left a widow and a new mother. It was my grandmother, Constance, and her sisters, Violet and Lilah – all Butler women – who rallied round and sustained us through this traumatic time. Some years later, Bridget remarried and consequently I have three brothers and one sister. We moved first to Northern Ireland and then to New Zealand, where we children were to grow up.

Bridget lost her father, Charles Bellville West, when she was seven years old and went to live with her mother, Constance, and grandmother, Annabella (Lady Theobald Butler), in Bournemouth.

Prior to World War Two, Bridget socialised with her Butler cousins and uncles. She was close to her cousin, Anthony (Viscount Thurles), who was, tragically, to die young. Anthony was a few years older than Bridget. He and his friends used to get her, underage, into jazz clubs and nightclubs, which she thoroughly enjoyed.

One final story relates to one of the first air raids on Bournemouth, in 1941. My mother and grandmother were out, my mother doing voluntary work at the armed forces canteen. When the all clear sounded, they both rushed home in high anxiety to see how my greatgrandmother had fared. They discovered her Ladyship calmly brushing her hair, seemingly unaffected by all the commotion of the air raid. She firmly told them “not to make a scene”, she was fine. To this day, I have the monogrammed ivory brush she was using then. I think of this story whenever I see it.

John Jennings, Charles Ponsonby and Andrew Soukup April 2018

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Preface

T

he need for a comprehensive overview, under one cover, of the Lives of the Chief Butlers of Ireland and their senior agnatic heirs – the earls, marquesses and dukes of Ormond(e) – has been apparent for decades.

This has been ably demonstrated by the repeated requests, chiefly from tourists, at the various Butler castles in the south-east of Ireland, but also through the Kilkenny and Tipperary bookshops.

There are, of course, countless works on the Kilkenny Castle line of the Butlers, but generally they relate to a particular period or person, notably of James Butler the 12th earl, 1st marquess and 1st duke, who is known in Irish history as the ‘Great Duke’ of Ormond. Many of the Lives given here are from the Dictionary of Irish Biography (DIB,2009), which was published under the auspices of the Royal Irish Academy and Cambridge University Press.

The Chief Butlerage of Ireland, one of the oldest feudal titles in these islands, as well as the earldoms of Ormond and Ossory, has been in abeyance since the death of Charles Butler the 7th and last marquess of Ormonde, in October 1997, aged ninety-eight. He left two daughters, which was also the issue of Arthur Butler, the previous holder who died in 1971. Ironically, all five grandchildren of Arthur are male, while Charles had one grandson and one granddaughter.

Arthur Ormonde had, in 1967, handed over Kilkenny Castle initially to a committee representing the citizens of Kilkenny, who two years later vested the property in the Office of Public Works, recognising that it was beyond the financial means of any voluntary committee to undergo its restoration. Arthur cared very much about his family’s ancestral home. He was the first marquess of Ormonde never to have lived there, though I am sure that, as with his older brother George (the 5th marquess), he did visit Kilkenny Castle during what is now seen as the twilight years. He may have been there for some of the royal visits which occurred during his childhood. The duke and duchess of York (later George V and Queen Mary) came in 1899. The visitors in May 1902 were Prince Albert William Henry of Prussia, next brother to Kaiser William II, who came without his wife Irene, who was born a princess of the Grand Duchy of Hesse, both being grandchildren

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Preface

Arthur Butler, 6th marquess of Ormonde. Charles Butler, 7th and last marquess of Photograph courtesy of Lady Martha Ormonde. Photograph courtesy of Lady Cynthia Hammer (daughter).

Ponsonby (daughter).

of Queen Victoria (1837–1901). Her sisters and his first cousins were the ill-fated Alexandra, last empress of Russia, Elizabeth Feodorovna, Grand Duchess Sergei of Russia, who was declared a holy martyr of the Russian Orthodox church in 1981 and lastly Victoria, Princess Louis of Battenberg (after 1917 Mountbatten, Marchioness of Milford Haven). Another royal visitor who over lapped for one day with her second cousin Prince Henry, was Louise Margaret of Prussia, Duchess of Connaught and Strathearn, wife of Prince Arthur, the third and favourite son of Queen Victoria. Beatrix, Countess Cadogan, the Irish viceroy’s wife was also on the guest list that same month. In 1904, it was the turn of Edward VII and Queen Alexandra. A roll-call indeed of the great and good from a world which was soon to vanish as a consequence of the ‘Great War’. The ten-day sale of October– November 1935, on the instructions of his predecessor, ensured that Kilkenny Castle was never a home thereafter.

With the castle came twenty acres of the almost fifty acres of demesne land, which Arthur purchased with his own money from the Ormonde Settled Estates Trust. As a life-tenant, he had only a life interest in the property. In other words, they were not his outright to gift or bequeath, so he had to purchase the land from the Ormonde Settled Estate Trustees. This was Arthur’s true gift to Kilkenny and

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Preface

Visit of the duke and duchess of York, later George V and Queen Mary, to the Ormondes at Kilkenny Castle, 1899. Lady Ormonde seated 3rd from left; the duchess of York 4th from left, then Lady Beatrice Pole-Carew and her sister Lady Constance Butler 5th and 6th.

The Duke of York stands 4th from the left next to Lord Ormonde. The photograph was taken in the Picture Gallery at Kilkenny Castle. OPW Kilkenny Castle.

its people. This personal money would, in the normal course of events, have most likely gone to his heirs – his two daughters and their five children.

Charles Ormonde, known generally as the ‘American Marquess’, due to his having lived most of his adult life in America, also worked to ensure that the remaining demesne land was not sold off for the building of houses, (or for commercial use) which would have materially benefitted him during his years as Lord Ormonde, when he was the chief beneficiary of the Ormonde Settled Estates Trust. At one stage, in I think the late 1970s or early 1980s, part of this acerage had been pegged out for sale to private developers. Charles, never a wealthy man, stepped in and ensured that the remaining land was acquired for the people of Kilkenny and Ireland, as part of the property we now know as the Kilkenny Castle Park. He wrote, in one of his letters to Robbie Haughton at the old Kilkenny Castle estate office, that while he was without doubt the last marquess, he did

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Preface

‘An interesting group at Kilkenny Castle, where the King will stay.’ This was published in April 1904 just before the private visit of Edward VII and Queen Alexandra. It may refer to the May 1902 visit of the German emperor’s next brother Prince Henry of Prussia and/ or to his cousin the Duchess of Connacht, both of whom stayed with the Ormondes during the weekend of 17–18 May.

not want to be known to posterity as the ‘marquess who did not care’. Thus, he worked with the Kilkenny local authorities and other interested parties, notably the Butler Society, to ensure that there was a worthwhile future for Kilkenny Castle, one which came complete with its associated parkland or demesne lands, that form so splendid a backdrop to the building. Without the parkland, Kilkenny Castle would have been much the poorer. When all was legally settled he wrote: ‘I hope the folks in Kilkenny will be happy.’

The Office of Public Works has done magnificent work with both the building and the lands. When one looks at the photographs taken on the occasion of the royal visits, detailed below, one cannot help but ponder the changed circumstances of the Ormondes, but for the castle itself, which has stood on the site for near eight hundred years, the twentieth century has been beneficial and this factor has added in no small way to the prosperity and well-being of the people of the Kilkenny.

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Preface These Lives are the story of one of Ireland’s greatest and oldest dynasties. Only the comital and later ducal Fitzgeralds of Leinster, often their rivals, were older and greater. The old saying ‘More Irish than the Irish themselves’ (Hiberniores Hibernis ipsis) is very true for both families.

Hopefully, Butlers will acquire this book in the years ahead. Many of them will do so while searching for a link between their own Butler ancestor and

The private visit of Edward VII and Queen Alexandra to the Ormondes at Kilkenny Castle late April early May 1904. Lady Ormonde sits to the right of the royal couple on the sofa while on her right is her sister-in-law, the American-born Lady Arthur Butler (Ellen Stager). 6th from left standing is Lord Arthur Butler (4th marquess), 10th from left is Lord Ormonde; 12th from left is the very young George Butler (later Lord Ossory and later still 5th marquess). 14th from left is the Rev. Lord Theobald Butler the father of Charles, the 7th and last marquess of Ormonde. Princess Victoria the second daughter of the king and queen sits in the front row, 1st left. Next to her we have Lady Beatrice Pole-Carew, while her sister Lady Constance Butler sits extreme right. The photograph was taken in the Picture Gallery Kilkenny Castle. OPW Kilkenny Castle.

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Outline family tree, by Paddy the 28th Lord Dunboyne, of the various Butler families and their descent in relation to the main line which is that of the Chief Butlers of Ireland later the earls, marquesses and dukes of Ormond(e). Image courtesy of Richard the 30th Lord Dunboyne and The Butler Society.

the Chief Butlers-Ormonds. As editor, I have taken the liberty of inserting genealogical notices which might assist them in their search. These genealogical notices mostly refer to articles in The Irish Genealogist, the official organ of the Irish Genealogical Research Society, whose first president was George, Lord Ossory (later 5th marquess). However, others refer to articles from The Journal of the Butler Society, whose first president was Arthur Ormonde (then 6th marquess). Arthur Ormonde was an active supporter of the society and indeed gifted some valuable charters and other documents to it. Many of these articles were subsequently vetted if not indeed written by Paddy, the late Lord Dunboyne, a Butler genealogist of note, so we can be quite sure that they are worthy of such attention alongside the work of the many scholars/historians who wrote most of the Lives.

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Family tree outlining descent of James Charles Butler 7th and last marquess of Ormonde, xix from Theobald Walter, 1st Chief Butler of Ireland. OPW Kilkenny Castle.

Acknowledgements

T

he origins for this book are to be found in the Dictionary of Irish Biography, which was published under the auspices of the Royal Irish Academy and Cambridge University Press in 2009. I am especially indebted to Mr James McGuire and Dr James Quinn and their editorial colleagues, and to the many contributors responsible for the Lives from that magnum opus, which I have included here.

I am indebted to many other people as well. Sir Charles Ponsonby, Bt., and his brothers Rupert, Luke and John and their first cousin, the recently deceased, Mark Heaton, all of whom quickly and generously came forward as sponsors.

All are grandsons of Arthur the 6th marquess of Ormonde, that magnificently generous Kilkenny patron.

Their cousins, John and Sharmaine Jennings of Australia are also sponsors, as are the latter’s two daughters, Shannon Jennings with husband Mark Reilly, and Marakech Jennings-Lowry with husband Robert Lowry. John’s half-brother, another Ormonde descendant, David Ford and his wife Faye have also contributed.

Their cousin, Andrew Butler Soukup, the only grandson of Charles, 7th and last Marquess of Ormonde and his aunt, Lady Cynthia Hammer and her husband, Col. Russell Hammer, must also be included here.

Mr Mark Stratton a great-grandson of Arthur the 4th marquess of Ormonde is yet another sponsor, as is Sir Richard Carew Pole Bt., of Antony, Cornwall, a grandson of the very beautiful Lady Beatrice Butler, one of the two daughters of James Edward William Theobald Butler, 3rd marquess of Ormonde. All these Ormonde descendants also gave information and family photographs which have added a family dimension to this history.

Others in this special sponsorship category include Piers, Lord Mountgarret (the heir-presumptive to the House of Ormond), two generations of the McMurrough Kavanaghs of Borris House, Carlow, who have various Ormond descents: Andrew and Tina Kavanagh and Morgan and Sara Kavanagh. The first notable Gaelic– Old English marriage of the House of Ormond was between Sadbh Kavanagh and James Butler, the parents of Sir Piers Butler the 8th earl of Ormond, and like so many mixed marriages was the cause of many a dynastic headache.

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Acknowledgements I am indebted to many other people as well. Ms Abigail Butler of Victoria, Australia has been hugely generous, as have Monsignor Kieron Kennedy, St. Mary’s Cathedral, Kilkenny, Charles and Rosemary Butler of Coral Gables, Florida and the Butler Trust through the good offices of Judge Peter Smithwick KM. Ms Grace Marshall, Ms Dolores Gaffney and Mr Frank Kavanagh, of Kilkenny Castle have a right to be remembered here. Colum O’Riordan and Ashling Dunne, fellow students of the 1992–3 archival class at UCD, and now of the Irish Architectural Archive, Merrion Square, Dublin, fielded my innumerable applications for information over many years with great tolerance and forbearance, as did the staff of the Manuscript Section of the National Library of Ireland.

Mr James Harte was of particular help. Mr William Murphy of Castlegardens, Thomastown, kindly supplied the cover image. Mr Fergus Horgan at the Kilkenny Rural Leader Programme guided my application for a grant with diligence and care. Mr Brian Tyrrell of Kilkenny County Council is yet another who must be thanked. The Rev. Katherine Poulton, Dean of St Canice’s Cathedral, and Ms Elizabeth Keyes, administrator, readily facilitated the photographing of the William and Mary communion cup and cover. Mr Paddy Flanagan was the expert cameraman.

Another to whom special thanks are due is M. Nicolas Bleret, of the Château de Jehay, Liège, Belgium, who was a welcoming host to a very small party of IrishGerman visitors, one of whom was Katharina Delaney (a von Butler of Coburg), and her husband Jimmy Delaney, on 13 March 2015. Nicolas, subsequently forwarded images and information relating to the Ormonde material at Jehay, which went there with Lady Moyra Butler upon her marriage in 1946 to Comte Guy van den Steen de Jehay. I also owe a depth of gratitude to Countess Segolene van den Steen de Jehay, a granddaughter of Lady Moyra Butler, who sought out the charming Harrington Mann portraits of her grandmother and of her great-uncle, Anthony, Viscount Thurles, which alas I was unable to use. She also searched for the ‘lost’ portrait of Lady Iveagh.

Mr Peter Seaver of Kilkenny Archives and the two Patricks – Flanagan and Cronan – at White’s Pharmacy, High Street, Kilkenny, were immensely patient and kind over a long period of time. Dr Jane Fenlon’s The Ormonde Picture Collection proved invaluable when it came to illustrations.

I would like to pay a special tribute to the late Patricia ‘Paddy’ Friel, a former administrator at Kilkenny Castle, who gave me my first job as an archivist in 1993. Paddy, a good and kindly friend, oversaw the early years of the castle’s restoration and the consequent re-opening when it took on a new lease of life and became the key tourist destination of the south-east of Ireland. She like other deceased friends, notably Melosina Lenox-Conyngham, Margaret M. Phelan, Nin

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Acknowledgements Bligh and Kitty Lanigan, encouraged my interest in the Ormondes, as did others, chiefly the still-living archaeologists, Ben Murtagh and Conleth Manning. Ben is owed a special ‘thanks’ for allowing his magnificent ‘summary’ of the castle’s archaeological history to be included here.

Lastly, I would like to pay another special tribute, this time to the work of three Butler genealogists of note: Theobald Blake Butler, his nephew Theobald ‘Toby’ Fitzwalter Butler and perhaps above all, to Paddy the 28th Lord Dunboyne.

The latter’s son, John the 29th Lord Dunboyne and his son Richard the current Lord Dunboyne also took an interest in this work, as did the latter’s mother, Caroline, Lady Dunboyne. Yet another member of the Dunboyne family to proffer assistance was the Hon Mary Synolda Butler.

Judith Evans, her husband Paul with her brother Dr Simon Blake Fitzwalter Butler, children of Theobald ‘Toby’ and Penny Butler are also sponsors. Judith and Simon descend from Sir Piers Butler the 8th earl of Ormond through his daughter Lady Joan Butler who married into the Dunboyne family.

Finally, thanks are due to the Publisher Mr Conor Graham, Managing Editor Ms Fiona Dunne and the team at Irish Academic Press, who worked so hard and long on the book. You have all made a significant contribution to this book. My sincerest gratitude.

John Kirwan April 2018

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Introduction

‘To know something of the history of the Chief Butlers of Ireland is to know something of our nation’s history.’

John Kirwan

Earlier Writers and Writings

I

n 1616, Robert Rothe, a legal adviser to the House of Ormond, put down his pen, having finished his ‘Register containing the pedigree of the Right Honourable Thomas late Earl of Ormond and Ossory and of his ancestors and cosines, both lineall and collaterall aswell since the conquest of Ireland as before and containing many of the memorable acts and services done and performed by the said Earls. And also of their matches and what honners offices and promotions were granted unto them from tyme to tyme with actes of general purchases made by them ...’ This is now Trinity College manuscript 842.

Since then, other authors such as Thomas Carte (who worked on his book from 1735–6) and Robert Southwell (1635–1702) have left accounts of individual members of the family, chiefly of James Butler, 12th earl, 1st marquess and 1st duke of Ormond (1610–88). In 1676, the Rev. Nicholas French, in his biography of the same duke, which he entitled The unkinde desertor or loyall men and true friends, adopted an alternative view of this powerful Old English aristocrat, whose personal loyalty to Charles I and Charles II was one of the abiding principles which governed all his actions during a long life of seventy-eight years. In the early twentieth century, Lady Burghclere wrote her two-volume biography of the same duke.

Canon Adrian Empey, Dr David Edwards and Professor Terence Dooley, to name but a few, have given us valuable insights into the history of the House of Ormond at key periods. Canon Empey concentrated on the twelfth century, Dr Edwards looked into the sixteenth-century happenings, while Professor Dooley has examined the workings of the Ormond estate during its twilight years.

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Introduction

Origins and Role in Irish and English History The Anglo-Norman Chief Butlers of Ireland arrived in Ireland in the retinue of Prince John, the youngest surviving son of Henry II and his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, who endowed him with the Lordship of Ireland. Some time before 1192, Theobald Walter, a knight (a. 1150–1206?) was granted the hereditary office of Chief Butler of Ireland, from which his numerous descendants took their surname. With the Fitzgeralds of Kildare and Desmond, the Butlers of Ormond became one of the three most important Anglo-Norman or Old English families of the Irish Lordship, and later of the Kingdom of Ireland. Accompanying the office was the prisage of wines, which secured for the family the right to about one-tenth of the cargo of any shipment of wine that broke bulk in Ireland.

Theobald and his senior male descendants, the earls of Ormond (cr. 1328), enjoyed this right until the crown bought it back in 1811 (by Act of Parliament) for the very large sum of £216,000, from the heavily indebted Walter Butler, 18th earl, who was also first marquess of the second creation. Of course, the tax had often gone unpaid and uncollected and there are many references in the Ormond papers that document legal actions undertaken to enforce their right and obtain their money. Black Tom the 10th earl was especially preoccupied with the enforcement of the tax, particularly in the Desmond territory, where it was so often contested, and most notably at the port of Kinsale. This proved to be one of the ongoing causes of bad blood between the Ormonds and the Desmonds over the centuries.

In October 1328, Edward III created James Butler, the 7th Chief Butler of Ireland, the eldest son of Edmond Butler, earl of Carrick (cr. 1315), earl of Ormond, under which derivation in the peerages of Ireland, England, Great Britain and the United Kingdom his senior agnatic descendants advanced and waned, depending on their personal abilities and their particular services to the English crown. As well as being created an earl, James was married to the king’s first cousin, Eleanor de Bohun – herself a daughter of the Plantagenet, Princess Elizabeth, who was full sister to Edward II, and a daughter of Edward I – which bound him closer to the English crown. With the bride and the earldom came the palatinate of Tipperary, both of which were marks of great distinction. These came with extensive land grants. Thus, was born a dynasty which prided itself on its loyalty to the crown.

Before all this happened, James, the future first earl, had been held as a royal hostage for his father’s good behaviour during the disturbing and bloody Bruce invasion. James was to die in 1338 ‘in the flower of his youth’. His widow, Eleanor, who was to live on until 1363, possibly lies buried in Gowran, where a

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Introduction magnificient memorial to a man and woman of rank survives from the fourteenth century.

The first five earls, all of whom bore the personal name of James, were pivotal political figures both here and in England. The 2nd earl, who was but six when he inherited, held many state offices. He used his daughters to create alliances with Gael and Anglo-Norman alike and by the time of his death in 1382, had secured the pre-eminence of his family in the south of Ireland, while at the same time shifting the focus of Ormond interest eastwards.

James the 3rd earl (a.1360–1405) successfully served Richard II and Henry IV, the latter in the French wars. In 1391, he purchased Kilkenny Castle and its lands from the absentee Despensers. He maintained close relations with the royal court but had no difficulty in using Gaelic law and adopting elements of Gaelic culture when it suited him, and this despite the Statutes of Kilkenny enacted in 1366–7. The Anglo-Norman Butlers were well on the way to becoming more Irish than the Irish themselves. He left a large brood of children, both legitimate and otherwise, from whom many cadet branches of the Butlers sprang, some of which were to prove troublesome to the main line.

James the 4th earl (c.1390–1452), known as the ‘White Earl’, inherited as a minor so became a ward of Henry IV, which wardship he granted to his son, Thomas of Lancaster, later Duke of Clarence, in whose train he travelled to France. He became involved in Henry V’s French wars. Some traditions state that he served in the Agincourt campaign of 1415, as he certainly did in the campaigns of 1418–20. In this he followed in the footsteps of his grandfather the 2nd earl, and like his father and grandfather, he was chief governor of Ireland, both in his own right, and as a deputy for absentee great English lords. He began the Ormond practice of sending the eldest son to the royal court. All three of his sons, who became successive earls of Ormond, were largely absentees, leading to a power vacuum, at home and in the Ormonde territory, particularly vulnerable in the south-east. The family’s political power in Ireland waned at this juncture.

The Talbot feud raged during this, James’s, tenure of the Ormond lordship. The 5th earl (1420–61), who was created earl of Wiltshire during his father’s lifetime (July 1449) by Henry VI, was a Lancastrian supporter. He lost his head in the wake of the battle of Towton (March 1461), whereby Edward IV overthrew his cousin, Henry VI, an episode in the Wars of the Roses. This earl, too, served in the French wars and was appointed to the office of chief governor of Ireland in 1453 and again in 1459.

John (1422–77) the 6th earl was born in Ireland but spent the greater part of his life in England. He, too, was a committed Lancastrian, who refused for a long time to accept Edward IV. Like his older brother, he was attainted and had to flee

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Introduction abroad. He returned to England during the short restoration of Henry VI (1470– 71). After the final victory of Edward IV over the unfortunate and heavily pious Henry VI, John accepted the political reality and was reconciled, becoming in later years a favourite of the king, whom he served in Normandy in 1475. From there, he journeyed to Rome and then travelled on pilgrimage to the Holy Land, where he died without legitimate issue. However, he left base-born issue, notably the future Sir James Butler, also known as ‘Black James Butler’ and at least two other siblings by his mistress Reynalda Ó Brien. Black James was murdered by his cousin, Sir Piers Butler – the first of his branch, the MacRichards, to wear the twin coronets of the earldoms of Ossory and of Ormond.

Thomas, the 7th earl (c.1424–1515) spent the greater part of his life in England, where he was not prominent as a soldier or as a politican. His marriage to Anne Hankford (1445) brought him extensive English estates, which, however, were not destined to give the succeeding earls of Ormond an English base, as these lands were inherited by his heirs-general – his daughters, the Lady Margaret Boleyn and the Lady Anne St Leger. As with his brothers, he was a committed Lancastrian but, with the coming of Henry VII to the throne in the wake of Bosworth Field (1485), he was fully restored to his titles and lands, became a privy councillor, and on at least two occasions was ambassador for the king to the dukes of Brittany and Burgundy. Some time before 1489, he was given an English peerage as Lord Ormond of Rocheford. In England, because of his great landed wealth, he was known as the ‘Earl of Wool’. When he died in 1515, he was chamberlain to Henry VIII’s first queen, Catherine of Aragon.

Sir Piers Butler (c.1467–1539) then came forth as the senior male claimant to the Ormond titles and lands. He was known generally as ‘Piers Ruadh’ Butler, no doubt because of his red hair, a characteristic he shared with his eldest son and successor, James ‘Lord Butler’, if we are to accept that the Holbein study entitled Ormond of c.1540, is indeed of him. Dr David Starkey, the well-known English Tudor historian, has argued convincingly that it is, which means this is the first portrait we have of any earl of Ormond. Piers was the 3rd son, but the first legitimate one of his father James Butler (c.1440–87) of Polestown, by his wife Sadhbh Kavanagh, and the grandson of Edmund ‘MacRichard’ Butler (c.1420–64), the eldest son of Richard Butler, godson of Richard II, who stayed at Kilkenny Castle shortly after his birth. Richard was the next brother of James Butler the 4th earl, who was the father of the 5th 6th and 7th earls. The outline family tree by Paddy the Lord Dunboyne, which accompanies this work, shows that Sir Piers’s grandfather and Thomas the 7th earl were first cousins. Thus, his own relationship was that of first cousin at two removes. Sir Piers spent a great part of his long life maintaining his claim as the de jure earl of Ormond, but it

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Introduction was not until the last year of his life that Henry VIII formally recognised him as the de facto Lord Ormond. Piers and his heir, James, known as ‘Lord Butler’, were actively involved in the suppression of the Silken Thomas revolt in the mid1530s, and it was because of this service and, in part, as compensation for the murder of Piers’s son, Thomas Butler, by Kildare supporters, that the viscountancy of Thurles was given to the Ormonds. The defeat of the Geraldines left Sir Piers Butler the key Anglo-Irish lord in Ireland.

James Butler the 9th earl (c.1496–1546), despite his early death due to probable food poisoning at a feast given for him and his followers in London in October 1546, did leave a mark on his family’s history. As with so many earlier Ormond earls, he spent time in France in the King’s service. Here, he was wounded in 1513, hence the nickname ‘James Bacach’ (‘lame’), as he was left with a lifelong limp.

James spent lengthy periods of time at the royal court, where he proved himself a loyal and trusted servant. As well as receiving the viscountancy of Thurles (1535), he was appointed lord treasurer and lord admiral of Ireland. He benefitted greatly from the suppression of the monastic houses, which made him the most powerful Anglo-Irish magnate in the wake of the disappearance of the Kildares from the Irish scene. His wife, Joan of Desmond, was the daughter and heiress of James Fitzgerald, 11th earl of Desmond. This alliance was probably intended to ease relations with the Desmonds. False hope, indeed.

The next earl was his eldest son and heir, Thomas (c.1531–1614), who was about fifteen when his father died. His wardship fell to the crown, while he himself, who had been sent to the royal court by his father in 1544, was probably placed in the household of Protector Somerset, senior uncle to Edward VI, in whose circle he featured. Notably, too, he visited France, but his role was a peaceful one, being part of an official embassy to the French king, Henry II. ‘Black Tom’, as he was known, became one of the most important political and military figures in Ireland during the reign of his distant cousin, Elizabeth I.1 During the entire course of the Ormond history, only his great-great-nephew, James Butler 12th earl, 1st marquess and 1st duke (who married Black Tom’s sole surviving legitimate grandchild), would occupy an even more demanding and prestigious position, and this during the reigns of Charles I and Charles II, though the first and fourth earls were no minor figures.

In between Black Tom and the Great Duke, the devout Roman catholic Sir Walter Butler of Kilcash (c.1559 or c.1569–1633), also known as ‘Walter of the beads’, succeeded his aged, blind and conformist uncle as the 11th earl in 1614.

Walter was to spend much of his tenure in royal disfavour, either under house arrest or in the Fleet prison in London, largely because he refused to accept the decision of James I (1603–25), who had partitioned the Ormond lands, unjustly,

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Thomas Butler, 10th earl of Ormond (c. 1531–1614), known as ‘Black Tom’. This fine portrait was at Kilkenny until taken to the Chateau de Jehay by Lady Moyra Butler, Countess van den Steen, c.1952. Her descendants returned it to Kilkenny some years ago.

Oil on canvas. Kilkenny Castle OPW.

between Black Tom’s sole surviving child, Lady Elizabeth Butler and himself. Earl Walter had the better legal case, but James, ‘the wisest fool in Christendom’, had his way and while he was at it he suppressed the Tipperary palatinate (1621). Here, James did the reverse of what he had done with the earldom of Cumberland upon the death of the 3rd earl, leaving only a legitimate daughter and a male cousin: the latter was declared the chief heir. Kilkenny Castle and the greater part of the Ormond inheritance fell to Lady Elizabeth and her second husband, Sir Richard

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Introduction Preston, Lord Dingwall and later still, earl of Desmond, a favourite of the Stuart king. Walter saw royal service with his Ormond uncle during the nine years’ war against Tyrone, and was knighted in 1598. He was also involved in negotiations

James Butler (1610­–88)1st duke of Ormond. Oil on canvas. Portrait de James Butler 2014 Province de Liège, chateau de Jehay, Gilles Destexhe.

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Studio of Sir Peter Lely (1618–80). Thomas Butler (1634–80), earl of Ossory, c. 1678, known as ‘the Gallant Ossory’, Lord Butler of Moor Park, lord-deputy of Ireland and father of James 2nd duke of Ormond. Oil on canvas. Ossory added much to the prestige of the House of Ormond. OPW Kilkenny Castle.

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Introduction with Tyrone on behalf of the crown. Finally, in 1625, Earl Walter bowed to the inevitable and accepted the king’s award. Fortunately for the Ormonds, Earl Walter succeeded in brokering a marriage in 1629 between his grandson and heir, James Butler, son of Thomas Viscount Thurles, and Lady Elizabeth Preston,

William Gandy (a.c. 1660–1729), James Butler (1665–1745), as earl of Ossory; succeeded 1688 as 2nd duke of Ormonde. Oil on Canvas. National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.

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Introduction to whom the greater part of the Ormond inheritance had fallen upon the death of both her parents in 1628. Thus, his grandson James married his uncle’s sole legitimate grandchild, reuniting the two parts of the Ormond patrimony. The financial cost added no small sum to the existing family debts.2 We must now look summarily at the career of James Butler the 12th earl, 1st marquess and 1st duke of Ormond (1610–88) and his successors. Duke James was perhaps the greatest of his line, though ‘Black Tom’, his great-great-uncle, was the better soldier and possibly, too, the more successful politican. After a period of exile during the Cromwellian interregnum, James, Lord Ormond, reemerged as lord lieutenant of Ireland due to his unswerving loyalty to the crown during its often penniless exile. In 1642, he was created the first marquess, while in 1661, a restored and grateful Charles II made him an Irish duke, which was followed some years later by a similar grant in the socially more prestigious English peerage.

All these titles were apparently lost by Act of Parliament (June 1715), during the lifetime of his heir and grandson, James Butler (1665–1745), the 13th earl, 2nd marquess and 2nd duke, who had served as Irish viceroy for most of Queen

Henry O’ Neill (1798–1880). Landscape view of Kilkenny Castle from the old St John’s Bridge, Kilkenny city. Watercolour on paper. Photograph courtesy of Mealys Fine Art.

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