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

Preface

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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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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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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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‘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.

Theobald Walter (Butler), 1st Chief Butler of Ireland

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heobald Walter (Butler) (c.1150–1206), magnate and 1st Chief Butler of Ireland, was the eldest son of Hervey Walter and Maud, daughter of Theobald de Valoignes. Little or nothing is known for certain about his family background, but he clearly came from what later centuries would call the landed gentry, and was probably educated in the household of his uncle by marriage Ranulf de Glanville, Henry II’s justiciar. Walter transferred to the household of John, Lord of Ireland, before the latter’s expedition to Ireland in 1185, almost certainly to take advantage of the opportunities provided by the new colony. Gerald of Wales implicates Walter in the assassination of Diarmait Mór MacCathaig (d. 1185), and he was an active participant in the conquest of the kingdom of Limerick, which formed the basis of the family’s lordship in Ireland for over a century. Walter also received the manors of Gowran, Tullow and Arklow from John. These grants ignored the rights of Isabella de Clare, heiress of Richard Clare, lord of Leinster, and Walter was later forced to surrender them, although they were returned to him to hold of the lord of Leinster instead of John, as lord of Ireland. A regular attendant of John, Theobald frequently travelled between England and his new lordship in Ireland. Some time before 1192, Walter was granted the hereditary office of Chief Butler of Ireland, from which his descendants took their family name. Although he tended to support John, he bowed to the authority of Richard I on several occasions, which lost him the favour of John, especially after the latter’s accession in 1199. He was stripped of some offices and lands in England, but was generally protected from the full extent of the royal wrath by his brother Hubert Walter, archbishop of Canterbury, who served as justiciar of England (1193–8) for Richard I and as chancellor (1199– 1205) under John. At a date before 1200, he married (possibly as his second marriage) Maud daughter of Robert le Vavasouer. Despite long absences in England, he successfully conquered and organised his new lordships in Ireland,

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The Chief Butlers of Ireland bringing in settlers and developing several towns (Thurles, Nenagh, Gowran and Arklow) to serve as the manorial centres of his lordships. He also founded religious houses in Nenagh, Arklow and Abington in Limerick. He died in the winter of 1205–6, and was buried in Abington (Wotheney) Abbey, leaving his lordships to his 6-year-old son, Theobald.

Charles and Rosemary Butler of Coral Gables, Florida, USA, with the new memorial to the 1st Chief Butler of Ireland, at Kilkenny Castle. Photograph courtesy of the sitters.

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Lives CDI; Ormond deeds, 1172–1350; C. Adrian, Empey, ‘The Butler Lordship in Ireland, 1185–1515’ (Ph.D. thesis, Dublin, 1970) id., ‘The settlement of the kingdom of Limerick’, Lydon, Eng. & Ire., 1–25. David Beresford.

Editor’s note: in 2003, Mr and Mrs Charles Butler of Coral Gables, Florida, commissioned a memorial stone from Ms Tanya Mosse, to mark the burial place at the Abbey of Owney (or Abington) Co. Limerick, of Theobald Walter, the 1st

From top left: the tomb, buskins and crozier of Hubert Walter (c. 1160–1205), archbishop of Canterbury, which were discovered in his tomb when it was opened in 1890.

Hubert was in succession dean of York (1186), bishop of Salisbury (1189), and after his return from the 3rd crusade was in 1193 elected archbishop of Canterbury. He was responsible for the return of Richard II’s army to England. He also held the posts of chief justiciar and lord chancellor of England. Courtesy of Canterbury Cathedral.

The Chief Butlers of Ireland Chief Butler of Ireland. See Rosemary’s article, ‘Theobald Walter and the Abbey of Owney’, The Journal of the Butler Society, vol. 3 no. 3 (1991), pp. 327–8. See the same journal, vol. 4, no. 3 (2003), pp. 435–49, for a second article by Rosemary Butler entitled ‘Theobald Walter: The Life and Times of the First Chief Butler of Ireland’, which includes photographs of the Tanya Mosse slate memorial at Kilkenny Castle at a Butler International Rally, before it was erected at Owney/ Abington.

The Irish Genealogist, vol. 1, no. 1, has an essay by the Hon. Patrick Theobald Butler, later Paddy the Lord Dunboyne, entitled ‘The Origins of the Butler Family’, pp. 55 and 60. Also, in the same journal, vol. 1 no. 5, there is the text of a lecture given by T. Blake Butler, entitled ‘The Origins of the Butlers of Ireland’, pp. 147–57. The same journal, vol. 5. no. 1 (1974) pp. 2–4, has an article entitled ‘The Original Ancestor of the Chief Butlers of Ireland’, again by Paddy the Lord Dunboyne.

A synopsis of Canon Adrian Empey’s ‘The Butler Lordship’ (1185–1515), mentioned by David Beresford, was published in The Journal of the Butler Society, vol. 3 (1970 and 1971), pp. 174–87. This includes a map of the Ormond lordship. Canon Empey also wrote ‘THEOBALD WALTER His Life, Times and Contribution to Irish History’, for which see The Journal of the Butler Society, vol. 3. no. 1 (1986–7), pp. 18–20.

The same Lord Dunboyne, in his Butler Family History, 8th edition, includes, on the condensed Butler Family Tree, a third brother for this man, namely Roger, who it seems is the likely ancestor for that branch of the Butlers represented today by the current Lord Butler of Saffron Walden.

Theobald Butler, 2nd Chief Butler of Ireland Theobald Butler (le Botiller, fitz Walter, Pincerna) (c.1200–1230) magnate, 2nd Chief Butler of Ireland, was only son and heir of Theobald Butler and Maud, daughter of Robert le Vavasouer. After his father’s death (c.1206) his wardship remained for some time in the hands of the king, was then granted to William de Broase, but seems eventually to have been granted to Geoffrey de Marisco, the future justiciar. On 2 July 1221, he received full seisin of his English and Irish lands.

Most of his career was spent in Ireland, and he was closely linked by service to William Marshal II, earl of Pembroke, lord of Leinster, and justiciar of Ireland, from whom he held some of his estates. In February 1223, probably at Marshal’s request, he was made constable of Roscrea Castle, and in October received a remission of his substantial debts and an annual stipend to be set off against his

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Lives debt to the Irish exchequer on account of his presence in Ireland on the king’s service with his overlord Marshal. His connections with the lord of Leinster brought him into conflict with the king; the Marshal–de Burgh feud led to the appointment of de Marisco his former guardian and father-in-law, as justiciar of Ireland in 1226 at the expense of his patron; before leaving Ireland, Marshal advised him and his other adherents to retain custody of the king’s castles in Ireland.

In an informative letter to the king in August that year, de Marisco related how on his arrival at Waterford in July he was initially opposed by Butler and the forces of Leinster; and that when he finally reached Dublin and began the process of taking oaths of loyalty from Anglo-Irish lords, Theobald vacillated, ‘unwillingly’ took the vow, but promptly seized Dublin Castle and fortified it against the justiciar, nor would he relinquish control over other of the king’s castles. De Marisco strongly recommended that Roscrea Castle be confiscated, and claimed that Theobald ‘had so misconducted himself in regard to the king, that although he has married the justiciar’s daughter and has by her a son, the justiciar would, if it is the king’s will, deprieve him of all the land which he holds of the king in Ireland’. No such drastic action was taken by Henry III, though Theobald was ordered to relinquish Roscrea in September.

Shortly afterwards, however, the king and Marshal were reconciled and Theobald became compliant; in February 1228, when de Marisco handed over the justiciarship to Richard de Burgh, he acted as one of the guarantors for the transfer of control of the royal castles. In October 1229, he was summoned on royal service to Brittany, where he accompanied the king, probably as part of Marshal’s retinue, on the short-lived and ineffective expedition. He died in Poitou on 19 July 1230. His body was brought back to Ireland and buried either in the Cistercian Abbey of Abington (Owney) in Limerick, or at Arklow, the original site of the foundation. During the course of his brief career he extended the Butler patrimony to the manors of Bray, in Co. Wicklow and

Arms attributed to Theobald Butler, first Butler of Ireland, 1171, from The Heraldry of Butler, being the arms of that family throughout the world by Alfred Rodway, printed Birmingham, 1920. Editor’s collection.

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The Chief Butlers of Ireland Gowran in Co. Kilkenny. His service to William Marshal also resulted in a number of grants elsewhere in Leinster.

His first marriage to Joan, daughter of Geoffrey de Marisco, seems to have produced only one son, Theobald. He married secondly (p. 4 September 1225) Rohese (Rose), daughter of Nicholas de Verdon; they had one son, John who kept his mother’s name and inherited the de Verdon lands.

G.E.C., Peerage; Liber feodorum: the Book of Fees, commonly called Testa de Nevill, 1198–1293 (1920–31), i, CR, 1227–37; CD1, 1172–1251; Ormond deeds, i, CPR, 1225–47; Orpen, Normans, iii; Edmund Curtis, A history of medieval Ireland (2nd ed. 1938); Otway-Ruthven, Med Ire. (1968); NH1, ix, Robin Frame, ‘King Henry III and Ireland’, P.R. Coss and S.D. Lloyd (ed.), Thirteenth-century England, iv (1992), 182–3. Ronan Mackay.

Theobald Butler, 3rd Chief Butler of Ireland Theobald Butler (le Botiller, Pimcerna) (c.1223–1248), magnate and 3rd Chief Butler of Ireland, was only son of Theobald Butler and his first wife Joan de Marisco. Immediately on his father’s death (July 1230), his wardship was granted to Richard, earl of Cornwall, the king’s brother, from whom the Irish lands may have passed to Richard de Burgh. He came of age in 1244, and on 11 June did homage for his lands on both sides of the Irish Sea. Most of his very brief career seems to have been spent in England where he illegally annexed territory in Lancashire.

His chief importance lies in his marriage (c.1242) to Margery, daughter of Richard de Burgh, which brought about the close alliance of the two families and the extension of Butler holdings to Carrick-on-Suir and the area around Clonmel.

This union seems to have produced only one son, Theobald (qv). Butler died c.29 July 1248 and was buried early the following month either at Abington (Owney) abbey in Limerick or at Arklow, the original site of the foundation.

G.E.C., Peerage; C.Ch. R., 1226–57; CR, 1242–53; CD1, 1172–1251; CIPM, i; Ormond deeds, i; CPR, 1232–58; Orpen, Normans, iii; Edmund Curtis, A history of medieval Ireland (2nd ed. 1938); NH1, ix. Ronan Mackay.

Theobald Butler, 4th Chief Butler of Ireland Theobald Butler (le Botiller) (1242–1285), magnate and 4th Chief Butler of Ireland, was only son of Theobald Butler and Margery, daughter of Richard de Burgh. After his father’s death (1248) his wardship was initially granted to Peter de Bermingham, but on the payment of a substantial sum was transferred to John

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Lives Fitzgeoffrey in January 1251. The wardship then became part of a complicated settlement between Peter of Savoy (the queen’s uncle) and the king, over debts owed by the latter to the former, and eventually ended up in the hands of Geoffrey de Lusignan. This caused a disagreement, eventually settled, between the king and the Lord Edward.

Theobald came into his inheritance c.1263 and on 6 December 1264 he was captured (along with Richard de la Rochelle (the justiciar) at Castledermot in Co. Kildare by Maurice fitzMaurice FitzGerald (c.1286) and Maurice fitz Gerald FitzGerald (d. 1268), and was imprisoned at Lea castle and Dunmase. This action was part of a war between the Geraldines and Walter de Burgh, earl of Ulster, Butler’s cousin and brother-in-law, with whom he had sided during the conflict. His release was probably procured after the mediation of a peace between the two sides by Geoffrey de Geneville on 15 April 1265.

Butler may have been part of an Irish contingent that fought at Evesham on the victorious royalist side. He seems to have remained in England over the following years, though he had returned to Ireland by 1269. Over the rest of his career he often commuted between his estates on both sides of the Irish Sea. In December 1269, he came before the justiciar, Robert of Ufford and made a fine for £500 for his men and tenants in Tipperary and Limerick, who were accused of regularly disturbing the peace. His mounting debts (some of them inherited, the result of a land-buying spree and speculation) led to an agreement with the king by which he relinquished a valuable advowson in Lancashire in part-payment, the remainder to be paid off in yearly instalments.

In February 1282 he acquired the lands of Philip de la Rochelle in Connacht in exchange for lands in Co. Dublin; he also agreed to shoulder part of Philip’s debt to the crown. During the course of the Easter parliament held in Dublin in 1281 he forcibly evicted the citizens of Dublin from lands he claimed in the county. They complained vigorously to the king, stating that Theobald’s influence was such with the justiciar and the Irish council that the matter would never be fairly tried. The same year he accompanied Ufford on an expedition to Thomond against the O’Briens. He died on 29 September 1285 at Arklow castle and was buried in the Dominican church there.

He married (c.1268) Joan, daughter of John FitzGeoffrey, his former guardian; they had at least eight sons and one daughter. Theobald his eldest son and heir, initially succeeded to the Butler estates and was in turn succeeded by his brother Edmund.

CCR, 1272–88; CD1, 1172–92; CFR, 1272–1307; Chartul. St Mary’s, Dublin, ii; CIPM, iii; Ormond deeds, i; CPR, 1258–92, CR, 1268–72; G.E.C., Peerage; Orpen, Normans, iii; Edmund Curtis, A history of medieval Ireland (1938); NH1,

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