When Charles Butler, earl of Arran (1671–1758), the brother and successor of the 2nd duke, died in December 1758, the dukedom and marques sate became extinct, but the earldom was claimed by a kinsman, John Butler (d. 1766). John’s cousin, Walter (1703–1783), inherited this claim, and Walter’s son John (1740–1795) obtained a confirmation of it from the Irish House of Lords in 1791. He is reckoned as the 17th earl. His son Walter, the 18th earl (1770–1820), was created marquess of Ormonde in 1816, a title which became extinct on his death, but was revived in favour of his brother James (1774–1838) in 1825. James was the grandfather of James Edward William Theobald. Butler (b. 1844), who became the 3rd marquess in 1854. The marquess sits in the House of Lords as Baron Ormonde of Llanthony, a creation of 1821.
See J. H. Round on "The Earldoms of Ormonde" in Joseph Foster’s Collectanea Genealogica (1881–1883).
ORMONDE, JAMES BUTLER, 1st Duke of (1610–1688), Irish statesman and soldier, eldest son of Thomas Butler, Viscount Thurles, and of Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Poyntz, and grandson of Walter, 11th earl of Ormonde (see above), was born in London on the 19th of October 1610. On the death of his father by drowning in 1619, the boy was made a royal ward by James I., removed from his Roman Catholic tutor, and placed in the household of Abbot, archbishop of Canterbury, with whom he stayed until 1625, residing afterwards in Ireland with his grandfather. In 1629, by his marriage with his cousin, the Lady Elizabeth Preston, daughter and heiress of Richard, earl of Desmond, he put an end to the long-standing quarrel between the families and united their estates. In 1632 on the death of his grandfather he succeeded him to the earldom.
He was already noted in Ireland, as had been many of his race, for his fine presence and great bodily vigour. His active career began in 1633 with the arrival of Stafford, by whom he was treated, in spite of his independence of character, with great favour. Writing to the king, Strafford described him as “young, but take it from me, a very staid head,” and Ormonde was throughout his Irish government his chief friend and support. In 1640 during Strafford’s absence he was made commander-in-chief of the forces, and in August he was appointed lieutenant general. On the outbreak of the rebellion in 1641 he rendered admirable service in the expedition to Naas, and in the march into the Pale in 1642, though much hampered by the lords justices, who were jealous of his power and recalled him after he had succeeded in relieving Drogheda. He was publicly thanked by the English parliament and presented with a jewel of the value of £620. On the 15th of April 1642 he gained the battle of Kilrush against Lord Mountgarret. On the 30th of August he was created a marquess, and on the i6th of September was appointed lieutenant-general with a commission direct from the king. On the i8th of March 1643 he won the battle of New Ross against Thomas Preston, afterwards Viscount Tara. In September, the civil war in England having meanwhile broken out, Ormonde, in view of the successes of the rebels and the uncertain loyalty of the Scots in Ulster, concluded with the latter, in opposition to the lords justices, on the 15th of September, the “cessation” by which the greater part of Ireland was given up into the hands of the Catholic Confederation, leaving only small districts on the east coast and round Cork, together with certain fortresses in the north and west then actually in their possession, to the English commanders. He subsequently, by the king’s orders, dispatched a body of troops into England (shortly afterwards routed by Fairfax at Nantwich) and was appointed in January 1644 lord lieutenant, with special instructions to do all in his power to keep the Scotch army occupied. In the midst of all the plots and struggles of Scots, Old Irish, Catholic Irish of English race, and Protestants, and in spite of the intrigues of the pope’s nuncio as well as of attempts by the parliament’s commissioners to ruin his power, Ormonde showed the greatest firmness and al^ility. He assisted Antrim in his unsuccessful expedition into Scotland. On the 2Sth of INIarch 1646 he concluded a treaty with the Irish which granted religious concessions and removed various grievances. Meanwhile the difficulties of his position had been greatly increased by Glamorgan’s treaty with the Roman Catholics on the 25th of August 1645, and it became clear that he could not long hope to hold Dublin against the Irish rebels. He thereupon applied to the English parliament, signed a treaty on the 19th of June 1647, gave Dubhn into their hands upon terms which protected the interests of both Protestants and Roman Catholics so far as they had not actually entered into rebellion, and sailed for England at the beginning of August. He attended Charles during August and October at Hampton Court, but subsequently, in March 1648, in order to avoid arrest by the parliament, he joined the queen and prince of Wales at Paris. In September of the same year, the pope’s nuncio having been expelled, and affairs otherwise looking favourable, he returned to Ireland to endeavour to unite all parties for the king. On the 17th of January 1649 he concluded a peace with the rebels on the basis of the free exercise of their religion, on the execution of the king proclaimed Charles II. and was created a knight of the Garter in September. He upheld the royal cause with great vigour though with slight success, and on the conquest of the island by Cromwell he returned to France in December 1650.
Ormonde now, though in great straits for want of money, resided in constant attendance upon Charles and the queen mother in Paris, and accompanied the former to Aix and Cologne when expelled from France by Mazarin’s treaty with Cromwell in 1655. In 165S he went disguised, and at great risk, upon a secret mission into England to gain trustworthy intelligence as to the chances of a rising. He attended the king at Fuenterrabia in 1659 and had an interview with Mazarin; and was actively engaged in the secret transactions immediately preceding the Restoration. On the return of the king he was at once appointed a commissioner for the treasury and the navy, made lord steward of the household, a privy councillor, lord lieutenant of Somerset (an office which he resigned in 1672), high steward of Westminster, Kingston and Bristol, chancellor of Dublin University, Baron Butler of Llanthony and earl of Brecknock in the peerage of England; and on the 30th of March 1661 he was created duke of Ormonde in the Irish peerage and lord high steward of England. At the same time he recovered his enormous estates in Ireland, and large grants in recompense of the fortune he had spent in the royal service were made to him by the king, while in the following year the Irish parliament presented him with £30,000. His losses, however, according to Carte, exceeded his gains by £868,000. On the 4th of November 1661 he once more received the lord lieutenant ship of Ireland, and was busily engaged in the work of settling that country. The most important and most difficult problem was the land question, and the Act of Explanation was passed through the Irish parhament by Ormonde on the 23rd of December 1665. His heart was in his government, and he vehemently opposed the bill prohibiting the importation of Irish cattle which struck so fatal a blow at Irish trade; and r eta hated by prohibiting the import into Ireland of Scottish commodities, and obtained leave to trade with foreign countries. He encouraged Irish manufactures and learning to the utmost, and it was to his efforts that the Irish College of Physicians owes its incorporation.
Ormonde’s personality had always been a striking one, and in the new reign his virtues and patriotism became still more conspicuous. He represented almost alone the older and nobler generation. He stood aloof while the counsels of the king were guided by dishonour; and proud of the loyalty of his race which had remained unspotted through five centuries, he bore with silent self-respect calumny, envy and the loss of royal favour, declaring, "However ill I may stand at court I am resolved to lye well in the chronicle."
He soon became the mark for attack from all that was worst in the court. Buckingham especially did his utmost to undermine his influence. Ormonde’s almost irresponsible government of Ireland during troublous times was no doubt open to criticism. He had billeted soldiers on civilians, and had executed martial law. The impeachment, however, threatened by Buckingham in 1667 and 1668 fell through. Nevertheless by
