James Butler, 1st duke of Ormonde

James Butler (October 19th, 1610 - July 21st, 1688), 1st Duke of Ormonde, was a Statesman and a Anglo-Irish Militaire. It is better known for its participation in the Irish confederated Guerres of the years 1640, when it ordered the royalist English forces in Ireland.

Youth

James Butler was the oldest son of Thomas Butler, Vicomte of Thurles, and Elizabeth, sister of Sir John Poyntz, and the grandson of Walter, 11th Count of Ormonde. Butlers d' Ormonde belonged to an old English dynasty, which had dominated the south-west of Ireland since the Moyen-âge. It had been born with London. With died of his father by Drowning in 1619, it was made royal pupil by Jacques I, then taken from its tutor catholic Roman, and entrusted to the care of George Abbot, Archevêque of Canterbury, at which it resided until the death of the king, in 1625. His/her grandfather, the count d' Ormonde, then took it in his house. He was going to prove very important for his future, and that had been thus desired, that with the difference of the majority of the members of the Ormonde dynasty, he was Protestant. That was going to cause certain tensions between him and its family and combined, since those, contrary to him, were going to undergo confiscations of ground and discriminations legal because of their religion. In December 1629, he married his cousin, Lady Elizabeth Preston, girl and heiress of Richard, count de Desmond, putting thus fine at a long quarrel between their families and linking their fields. In 1634, with died of his/her grandfather, the title of count him échut.

Rebellion and civil war

Ormonde was already known in Ireland, when it started to play an active role in there 1633 with the arrival of the count de Strafford, which, to stick it, filled it attentions and admitted it in its intimacy. Strafford recommended it to the king and with the private Conseil like an young man with, you can believe me, the head on the shoulders, which will be able to render the greatest services . Ormonde became thus the principal friend and support of Strafford. This one projected to confiscate the vast wide ones of grounds belonging to Catholics, which Ormonde approved, but what made furious the remainder of its family, and led a great part of it to be opposed to Strafford, and finally to rebel. In 1640, during the absence of Strafford, Ormonde was indicated commander-in-chief of the English forces, which counted: 3000 men, and in August, it was named general lieutenant.

At the beginning of the Irish Rebellion of 1641, Ormonde was to order the governmental forces based with Dublin. Almost all the remainder of the country was occupied by the catholic rebels, whose its family formed part. However the family ties were not entirely broken, since his wife and her children were escorted by her cousin, Richard Butler, Lord Mountgarret, since Kilkenny, held by the rebels, to Dublin. Ormonde launched several forwardings from Dublin to try to release the edge of the rebellious zone. First of all it seized Naas, then north of the Pale in 1642. The Lords judges, who had doubted him because of his parental bonds with many rebels, reconsidered their opinion when he managed to release Drogheda. It accepted the public thanks of the Parlement of England and a jewel of a value of £620.

The April 15th 1642, it gained the Bataille of Kilrush against his/her cousin Lord Mountgarret. The August 30th 1642, it was created Marquis, and the September 16th according to, it was named general lieutenant with direct mandate of the king, thus enabling him to act without contradictor.

The March 18th 1643, it gained the Bataille of New Ross against Thomas Preston, which became later the Tara Viscount. Ormonde was however in great difficulty. In September, the civil war had burst in England, which deprived it of English reinforcements, whereas the catholic rebels held two thirds of the country. Moreover Covenanter S Scottish, which had unloaded in Ulster in 1642 to repress the Irish rebellion, had lined up with the Parliament of England against the king.

Insulated in Dublin, Ormonde is lived reduced to sign with the Catholics a Armistice, who recognized with the Irish Confédération the possession of the major part of the country, leaving only with the hands English commanders some small districts of the east coast and around Cork, like some fortresses in north and the west. This truce was extremely badly accommodated by the Lords judges and the Protestant community as a whole.

By order of the king, Ormonde then had to detach part of its troops in England to fight at the sides of the Royalists during the civil war. These troops were put shortly after in rout by Thomas Fairfax at the Bataille of Nantwich, the January 26th 1644. This same month, Ormonde was named Lord lieutenant d' Irlande with the task to prevent that the Members of Parliament, enemies of the king, did not receive reinforcements coming from Ireland, while recruiting new troops to fight at the sides of the Royalists in England. For that, it had like instruction to do all in its capacity to retain in the north of Ireland the Scottish army of Covenanters. It also obtained the authorization of the king to negotiate a treaty with those of the Confédérés Irish, which would make it possible their troops to go to fight for the king in England.

Negotiations with Confederated Irish

Ormonde was confronted with the task difficult to reconcile the various factions in Ireland. The Irishmen of stock, the “old Irishmen”, and the Irishmen of English descent, the “old English”, all of Catholic religion, were represented in the Confederation of Ireland, an independent government, based with Kilkenny, which wanted to recognize well king Charles Ier of England in exchange of the religious tolerance and Autogouvernance. On another side, any concession made by Ormonde in Confédérés weakened its support for the English and Scottish Protestants of Ireland. This is why its negotiations with Confédérés were tortuous, even if many of their chiefs were of his/her parents or friends.

In 1644 it helped Randal MacDonnell, marquis d' Antrim to assemble an Irish forwarding confederated in Scotland. This force, led by Alasdair MacColla was sent to lend strong hand to the Royalists Scot, which started the civil war in Scotland. This proved to be the only intervention of the catholic Irish troops in Great Britain during the civil war.

The position of Ormonde became even more delicate after the signature of a secret agreement between Edward Somerset and the Catholics Irish on August 25th, 1645. March 28th, 1646, Ormonde concludes with Irish Confédérés a treaty which granted religious concessions to them and eliminated certain injustices. However the general meeting of Confédérés refused this market, partly because of the nuncio of the pope Innocent X, Giovanni Battista Rinuccini, which encouraged the Catholics not to sign a compromise. Those which had signed the treaty were stopped, and Confédérés broke the truce with Ormonde.

It became soon clear that it could not hold Dublin vis-a-vis the Irish rebels. He addressed to the Long Parliament, and signed with him, on June 19th, 1647, a treaty under the terms of which he delivered Dublin to him by preserving the interests at the same time Protestants and Catholics, who had not entered in rebellion. Before returning to England at the beginning of August 1647, it gave the city and the troops under its command to the police chief of the Parliament Michael Jones. Ormonde noticed, in connection with its choice, “which he had preferred the English rebels with the Irish rebels”.

Ordering royalist alliance

Ormonde accompanied king Charles retained with the Château by Hampton Court in August and in October 1647, but in March 1648, in order to prevent its own arrest by the Parliament, it joined the queen and the Prince de Galles with Paris. In September of the same year, the apostolic nuncio having been expelled, and the businesses if not announcing itself in a favorable way, it turned over to Ireland to try to unify the parts favorable to the king. Irish Confédérés then was opened with a compromise, having known into 1647 a whole series of military disasters against the parliamentary forces. January 17th, 1649, Ormonde concludes peace with the rebels on the basis from the free exercise from their religion. With the news of the execution of the king, on January 30th, 1649, it made proclaim the prince of Wales under the name of Charles II, which did it member of the Order of the Garter in September 1649. Ormonde was placed at the head of the armies of Irish Confédérés and the English royalist troops, which, coming from France, unloaded in Ireland. However, although it controlled before August 1649 almost all the country, Ormonde was unable to prevent the conquest of Ireland by Cromwell of 1649 to 1650. Ormonde tried to take again Dublin in August 1649, but it was put in rout at the battle of Rathmines. Thereafter, it tried to stop Cromwell by holding a line of fortified towns through the country. The New Model Army managed nevertheless to take them the ones after the others, while starting with the Siège of Drogheda in September 1649. Ormonde lost the majority of its English and Protestant troops royalist when they mutinèrent and joined Cromwell in May 1650. There remained to him only the catholic Irish forces, which were wary largely of him. Ormonde was dislocated of its command in at the end of 1650, and it turned over to France in December. By the law of colonization of Ireland of 1652 (Act off Settlement), all the goods of Ormonde were confiscated, and it was excluded from the grace granted to all the Royalists who had gone to this date.

Ormonde, although completely with money court, was held constantly with the service of Charles II and the queen mother in Paris, and it accompanied that one with Aachen and Cologne, when it was expelled of France under the terms of a treaty signed between Mazarin and Cromwell in 1655. In 1658, it went to England, disguised and at the great risks, to obtain information worthy of confidence on the chances of a rising. It accompanied the king with Hondarribia in 1659, had a discussion with Mazarin, and engaged actively in the secret transactions which preceded by little the Restauration.

Career during the Restoration

On his return in England, the king Charles II appointed it commission agent with the treasure and with the navy, did it Lord Steward, Conseiller private, Lord lieutenant de Somerset (load of which he resigned in 1672), High Steward of Westminster, Kingston and Bristol, president of Trinity College of Dublin, baron Butler de Llanthony, and marquis de Camden in the Pairie of England. March 30th, 1661, it was created Duc of Ormonde in the Pairie of Ireland, and was made Lord High Steward the day of the crowning of Charles II. At the same time, it recovered its immense grounds of Ireland, and the king granted to him important amounts of money in reward of the fortune which it had spent with his service, while the Irish Parliament offered to the following year a sum of £30 000 to him. However, according to Thomas Chart, its losses exceeded its profits of £868 000.

November 4th, 1661, it was again named viceroy of Ireland, and it was actively occupied to restore peace in this country. The principal problem was the question of the grounds, and it made off vote by the Irish Parliament the Act Explanation on December 23rd, 1665. It was very attached to its government, and it was opposed savagely to the English law, prohibiting the importation of Irish cattle, which carried a fatal blow to the trade of this country. In reprisals, it prohibits the importation in Ireland of the products Scot, and obtained the authorization to make trade with the foreign countries. He encouraged to the maximum industry and education, and it is thanks to its efforts that the Irish College of the doctors owes his creation. Its personality had always been outstanding, but, during the new reign, its virtues and its patriotism only became more obvious. It incarnated almost only the old woman and noble generation. While the advisers of the king let themselves guide by their instincts, it kept away, to trust of its honesty and its race, which had remained immaculate during five centuries. It undergoes silently, with the same respect of itself, calumny, the desire and royal disgrace, informant: “It does not matter that the court considers me bad, I am solved so that the history considers me good”. It became soon the target of all the attacks of the worst courtiers. In particular, Buckingham did all that it could to sap its influence. Admittedly, the almost irresponsible government of Ormonde during the disorders in Ireland was not free from criticisms: it had confined the soldiers in the civilians, and had applied the martial Loi. Buckingham in vain threatened it of committal for trial.

In March 1669, it was isolated government of Ireland and committee of the Irish businesses. He did not complain any, requiring simply that its sons and the people, on whom he had had influence, be preserved at their stations, and he continued to fill the duties of his other loads, so that his personal value and its services precisely were recognized by its election as director of the Université of Oxford on August 4th, 1669.

In 1670, it was the object of an extraordinary attempted murder by an adventurer not very advisable, the colonel Thomas Blood, already known to have organized the attack by missed surprise of the Château of Dublin, and later, to have stolen the Crown jewels British in the Tour of London. Ormonde was attacked by Blood and its accomplices whereas it went up St James Street the night of December 6th, 1670. After having killed its coachman, they tore off it its car, and carried it with back of horse along Piccadilly with the intention to hang it with Tyburn, where the Gibet S. Ormonde were, while struggling, managed to throw itself to bottom of the horse, involving with him the rider, to which it was bound, and, helped of some people which arrived, it succeeds in escaping its assassins, where it brought his total support in Charles II. November 9th, 1683, it was high with the dignity of English duke. In June 1684, it turned over to Ireland, but it was pointed out in October because of new intrigues. Before it can give its government in the hands of Rochester, Charles II died, and the last act of Ormonde as a viceroy was to proclaim Jacques II in Dublin. Ormonde was also the 6th president of Trinity College of Dublin between 1645 and 1688, although it was in exile the first fifteen years of his function.

Thereafter, Ormonde was withdrawn with Combury in the Oxfordshire in a house which Lord Clarenton rented to him, but it came out from it in 1687 to be opposed firmly and successfully to Jacques II, who tried to assume the capacity to decide and impose to the board of directors of Charterhouse a catholic candidate without it lending oath, in contradiction with the statutes and the law of the Parliament. Ormonde also refused with the king his support in the question of the Indulgence. It is all with the honor of the latter not to have withdrawn its loads to him and to have continued to testify its respect and its good graces to him. Ormonde died on July 21st, 1688 with Kingston Lacy, Dorset, amusing “not to have lived itself longer than its intellectual abilities”. With him disappeared largest and the noblest figure from its time. It was buried with the Abbaye of Westminster on August 1st, 1688.

Family

With his wife Elizabeth Preston, it had 7 children, among whom three wire became adult:

Thomas Butler (1632 - 1632)
Thomas Butler, 6th count d' Ossory (1634 - 1680)
James Butler (1636 - 1645)
Richard Butler, 1st count d' Arran (1639 - 1686)
Elizabeth Butler (1640 -?)
John Butler, 1st count de Gowran (1643 - 1677)
Mary Butler (1646 - 1710)

Its elder alive, Thomas, count d' Ossory (1634 - 1680) died before him. Consequently the title of duke échut to James Butler, 2nd duke of Ormonde (1665 - 1745), oldest son of Thomas, and thus grandson of James. Its two others wire, Richard, created count d' Arran, and John, created count de Gowran, died both without male descent. The male descent of the duke died out in the person of Charles, 3rd duke of Ormonde, and the county turned over to the branch junior by Walter, 11th count d' Ormonde.

The line of Butler can be gone up to James Butler, born in 1331 in Knocktopher Castle, Arklow, Wicklow, Ireland. This James Butler was the son of Eleanor Bohun, which was the girl of Elizabeth Plantagenêt, also called Elizabeth de Rhuddlan (born in 1282 in Rhuddlan Castle, Wales). Elizabeth Plantagenêt was the girl of the king Edouard Ier of England and Éléonore de Castille. The line of the king Edouard I can be gone up until several monarchs, such Henry II, Aliénor of Aquitaine, William the Conqueror, and of course Charlemagne, king of the Francs.

References

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