Edmund Butler, Earl of Carrick

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Coat of arms of Edmund Butler, Earl of Carrick

Edmund Butler, Earl of Carrick († before September 13, 1321 in London ) was an Anglo-Irish nobleman and civil servant.

Origin and heritage

Edmund Butler was a younger son of Theobald IV Butler and his wife Joan Fitzgeoffrey . His father was an Anglo-Irish baron who held the office of Butler of Ireland and thus the courtly honorary office of cupbearer . It is possible that Butler came to England after his father's untimely death in 1285. After the childless death of his older brother Theobald V Butler in 1299, he inherited the family estates.In addition, after the death of his mother in 1303, he inherited part of the estates of his grandfather John Fitzgeoffrey in Ireland and England, and he inherited part of the family's English and Irish estates Pippard .

Justiciar of Ireland

Service as deputy legal advisor and first term as legal advisor

During the Scottish War of Independence in 1303 Butler wanted to support the campaigns of the English King Edward I in Scotland with an Irish force , but the king finally ordered him to stay in Ireland to protect the island. Because John Wogan , the Justiciar of Ireland was not in Ireland, Butler served as his deputy from November 1304 to May 1305. From 1309 to 1310 Butler was in England, where he was knighted by King Edward II . Back in Ireland, he served as Justiciar of Ireland from August 1312 to June 1314. In this capacity he undertook a major campaign against the Irish clan of the Uí Bhroin in Wicklow in the winter of 1312-1313 , forcing the clan to submit. At Michaelmas 1313 he is said to have knighted 30 squires in Dublin.

Repel the Scottish invasion of Ireland

From February 1315 Butler served again as Justiciar, where he was from 1317 under the command of Roger Mortimer , who had been appointed King's Lieutenant of Ireland. During his tenure, Butler had to cope with the invasion of a Scottish army under Edward Bruce , but also the aftermath of the great famine of 1316-1317 . In June 1315 he called the Irish barons to Dundalk to repel the Scottish army . In the bloody Battle of Dundalk that followed, the Scots routed Butler's army, but after a few more skirmishes, the Scots were forced to retreat to Northern Ireland. Since food was scarce due to the famine, Butler did not pursue them. He mistakenly believed that the army raised by the Earl of Ulster would be enough to defeat the Scots once and for all. When the Scots then pushed further south again in early 1316, Butler, together with John Fitz-Thomas and Arnold le Poer, fought the Scots in the battle of Skerries in Kildare , which ended in a draw. The royal official John Hotham , who was watching the battle, believed that Butler should have won the battle. He therefore doubted Butler's loyalty to the king and asked him and other magnates to take hostages. After 1317 the Scottish King Robert Bruce had landed to support his brother in Ireland, leaving Butler Dublin and placed in Munster a force of about 600 horsemen and 300 foot soldiers, where he obviously the full support of the Gentry had of Munster, for the force 220 men-at-arms presented. With this force he followed the Scots to Limerick until mid-April 1317 without seeking an open battle. The Scots looted Butler's property, but ended up being forced to move back to Northern Ireland without adequate supplies and without the support of the Irish people they had hoped for. In April 1318 Butler was replaced as justiciar. John Bermingham was finally able to defeat the Scots in October 1318 in the Battle of Faughart .

Elevation to the Earl of Carrick

Butler had undertaken the office of royal representative under most adverse circumstances. In addition to the attack by the Scots and the famine, he had to fend off the attacks of the local Irish chiefs, while the Anglo-Irish barons themselves were at odds with one another. While he did not achieve overwhelming success against the Scots, he proved to be an able administrator compared to other officials. The king rewarded his services by giving him the goods of Carrick-on-Suir and Roscrea in Tipperary on September 1, 1315 and making him Earl of Carrick . However, his possessions did not meet this high standard, so that the other barons did not accept him as an earl. Butler himself rarely used the title. He was even often accused of not having fought vigorously against the Scots or even supporting them. Eduard II declared shortly before Butler's death that Butler had always served him loyally and faithfully and that there was no reason to suspect treason against him.

Last years and death

Given the political situation in Ireland, Pope John XXII gave birth . 1320 Butler of the vow to go on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela . He spent the last months of his life in England. Butler died in London on or shortly before September 13, 1321. He was buried in Gowran , Kilkenny , in November 1321 . Bishop Richard Ledred of Ossory and the Prior of the Order of St. John had previously given assurances that four priests would pray in Gowran for the salvation of Butler and his family.

Marriage and offspring

1302 had married butler Joan , a daughter of the Irish baron John FitzGerald . He had several children with her, including:

On February 11, 1321, Butler had agreed with Roger Mortimer that his daughter Joan would marry Mortimer's younger son Roger . Butler paid Mortimer £ 1000 for it, while Mortimer promised to give the couple their Irish possessions. A little later, however, the Despenser War began, during which the Mortimers rebelled against King Edward II. Roger Mortimer the Younger was imprisoned by the king in 1322 and was only released after the fall of Edward II in 1326. Butler's heir became his son James Butler. This did not carry on the title Earl of Carrick, but he was elevated to Earl of Ormonde in 1328 at the instigation of Roger Mortimer, his father's former ally .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ian Mortimer: The greatest traitor. The Life of Sir Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March, Ruler of England, 1327-1330. Pimlico, London 2003, ISBN 0-7126-9715-2 , p. 68.
  2. ^ Ian Mortimer: The greatest traitor. The Life of Sir Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March, Ruler of England, 1327-1330. Pimlico, London 2003, ISBN 0-7126-9715-2 , p. 81.
  3. ^ Robin Frame: The campaign against the Scots in Munster, 1317 . In: Irish Historical Studies, 24 (1984-5), p. 365.
  4. ^ Robin Frame: The campaign against the Scots in Munster, 1317 . In: Irish Historical Studies, 24 (1984-5), p. 367.
  5. ↑ Seymour Phillips: Edward II . New Haven, Yale University Press 2010. ISBN 978-0-300-15657-7 , pp. 257.
  6. ^ RR Davies: Mortimer, Roger, first earl of March (1287-1330). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004
  7. ^ Ian Mortimer: The greatest traitor. The Life of Sir Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March, Ruler of England, 1327-1330. Pimlico, London 2003, ISBN 0-7126-9715-2 , p. 320.
  8. ^ Ian Mortimer: The greatest traitor. The Life of Sir Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March, Ruler of England, 1327-1330. Pimlico, London 2003, ISBN 0-7126-9715-2 , p. 214.
predecessor Office successor
Theobald Butler Baron Butler
1299-1321 		James Butler
New title created Earl of Carrick
1315-1321 		Title not continued
personal data
SURNAME Butler, Edmund, Earl of Carrick
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Carrick, Edmund Butler, Earl of; Butler, Sir Edmund
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Anglo-Irish nobleman and civil servant
DATE OF BIRTH 13th Century
DATE OF DEATH before September 13, 1321
Place of death London