James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde

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James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde, around 1680

James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde KG (born October 19, 1610 in London , † July 21, 1688 in Kingston Lacy , Dorset ) was an Anglo-Irish statesman and soldier. He was best known for his involvement in the Irish Confederation Wars of the 1640s, during which he commanded the English royal forces in Ireland .

Early years

James Butler was the eldest son of Thomas Butler, Viscount Thurles, and Elisabeth, the daughter of Sir John Poyntz and the grandson of Walter Butler, 11th Earl of Ormonde . The Ormonde Butlers were an ancient English dynasty who had ruled southeast Ireland since the Middle Ages . When James' father drowned in 1619, the boy was placed in the household of George Abbot , Archbishop of Canterbury , to raise King James I. This was a decisive turning point in the boy's life, as he had previously been raised by a Catholic private tutor. While all of his relatives in Ireland were Catholic, James was now raised Protestant. He stayed with the Archbishop until 1625. Then he moved back to Ireland to live with his grandfather. Relations with his family and other relatives were strained, however, as they had for some time suffered from religious discrimination and land confiscations by the English government, while his religion left him unmolested. In December 1629 he married his cousin Elisabeth Preston, 2nd Lady Dingwall , the daughter and heiress of Richard Preston, 1st Earl of Desmond . This ended a long-running dispute between the two families and led to a merger of the properties. When James' grandfather died in 1634, he inherited from him the titles of 12th Earl of Ormonde , 5th Earl of Ossory and 4th Viscount Thurles , as well as the hereditary court office of Chief Butler of Ireland .

Rebellion and civil war

King Charles I.

Ormonde already had a good reputation in Ireland. His active military career began in 1633 when Thomas Wentworth took over the post of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland , which promoted him greatly. Wentworth described him to the King as "young but, believe me, bright mind." Ormonde became Wentworth's closest friend and supporter over time. Wentworth planned large-scale confiscations of lands belonging to Catholic owners, which Ormonde supported. However, this led to a violent argument with his relatives. Many of them went into opposition to Wentworth, which eventually led to the rebellion. In 1640, during Wentworth's absence, he became substitute commander-in-chief of the troops. When the Irish Rebellion broke out in 1641, Ormonde became the commander of government forces in Dublin . The rest of the country was soon taken over by the rebels, including Ormonde's relatives. Even so, relations between Ormonde and his relatives did not break off completely. For example, Ormonde's wife and children were escorted to Dublin from the rebellious city of Kilkenny by his cousin Richard Butler, 3rd Viscount Mountgarret . Ormonde led several expeditions into the Dublin area to track down rebels there. First he was able to recapture Naas in 1642 and later large parts of Pale . In spite of these successes, Ireland's lord judges began to distrust him because of the large number of relatives who fought on the Irish side. However, this suspicion disappeared when Ormonde was able to free the city of Drogheda . The English Parliament thanked him and presented him with a precious stone worth £ 620. On April 15, 1642, he won the Battle of Kilrush against his cousin Lord Mountgarret. On August 30, 1642 he was raised to Marquess of Ormonde and on September 16, he was appointed lieutenant general directly by the king .

On March 18, 1643 he won against Thomas Preston , later Viscount Tara. Ormonde was now in a difficult situation because the English Civil War broke out in September and therefore no supplies for his troops could be expected from England. Two thirds of the country were still in the hands of the rebels. In addition, the troops of the Scottish Covenanters , who had actually landed in Ulster to put down the Irish Rebellion, changed sides and supported the English parliamentary troops against the king. With Ormonde now completely isolated in Dublin, he eventually agreed to a truce . The condition was that most of Ireland had to be handed over to the Irish Catholic Confederation . Only a few small districts on the east coast of Ireland and in the vicinity of Cork , along with a few fortresses in the north and west, remained under English administration. This agreement was vehemently condemned by the lord judges and the Protestant population of Ireland.

Ormonde then crossed over to England with some of his troops at the request of the king and fought on the loyal side in the civil war, where they were defeated in the Battle of Nantwich on January 26, 1644. Ormonde was then appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland by the King with the task of preventing Parliament from getting reinforcements from Ireland. At the same time he should raise troops in Ireland for the king and see to it that the troops of the Scottish Covenanters in Ulster do not cross to England. He was also allowed to convert the previous armistice with the Irish Confederates into a peace treaty. The king hoped that the Irish would then send troops to England to fight on the king's side in the civil war.

Negotiations with the Irish Confederates

Pope Innocent X.

These various tasks were difficult to accomplish. The "Old Irish" (born Irish) and the "Old English" (Catholic Irish of English origin) were as Irish Confederates practically an independent Catholic government based in Kilkenny, demanding tolerance of their religion and political self-determination. In contrast, there were the English and Scottish Protestant residents of Ireland. As soon as Ormonde showed courtesy to the Confederates, he lost more and more support from the Protestants. As a result, negotiations with the Confederates were difficult, although he had to negotiate almost exclusively with relatives and friends.

In any case, he managed to get Catholic Irish troops on the side of the English king to campaign in Scotland . In 1644 Ormonde, together with Randal MacDonnell, 1st Marquess of Antrim , and a force of Irish Confederates under the command of Alasdair MacColla, went to Scotland to support the Scots loyal to the royal family. This sparked the Scottish Civil War (1644-1645). However, this remained the only interference by Catholic troops in Britain during the Civil War.

On March 28, 1646, Ormonde signed a treaty with the Irish Confederates, which made them religious concessions and withdrew some reprisals. However, this treaty was not accepted by the Confederate General Assembly, not least because Pope Innocent X exerted influence through his nuncio Giovanni Battista Rinuccini . The Pope did not agree to a compromise. As a result, those who negotiated the treaty with Ormonde were arrested and the Confederates renounced the peace with Ormonde.

It quickly became clear that Ormonde Dublin would not hold up against the rebels. He then contacted the " Long Parliament " in England and concluded a treaty on June 19, 1647, which said that he would hand Dublin over to Parliament. The treaty contained agreements that took into account the interests of both Protestants and non-rebel Catholics. Ormonde traveled to England in early August 1647, where he officially surrendered Dublin and his troops to the parliamentary commander Michael Jones. In this context, Ormonde is said to have stated that he would "prefer English rebels to Irish."

Commander of the Royal Alliance

Ormonde visited the King at Hampton Court Palace in August and October 1647 , but had to flee to Paris with the Queen and Prince of Wales in March 1648 to avoid being arrested by Parliament. In September of the same year, the papal nuncio was expelled from Ireland and Ormonde was able to return to Ireland to make another attempt to get the various parties to the side of the king. The Irish Confederates were now more willing to agree to a compromise, as 1647 had brought a series of military failures against the forces of the English Parliament.

On January 17, 1649, Ormonde finally signed a peace treaty with the Irish rebels. Ormonde was used as the commandant of the Irish Confederate Army and also commanded the royal troops arriving in Ireland from France . Despite this Irish support, he could not prevent Cromwell from conquering Ireland in 1649 and 1650. Ormonde tried to retake Dublin in August 1649, but was repulsed at the Battle of Rathmines . He then attempted to hold some fortified cities, but, beginning with the siege of Drogheda in September 1649, was conquered one by one by Cromwell and his New Model Army . Most of Ormonde's English and Protestant forces eventually mutinied and defected to Cromwell in May 1650. So he was left with only the Irish Catholic troops, who, however, distrusted him very much. He was then relieved of his command towards the end of 1650 and returned to France in December 1650.

In 1652 Cromwell enacted a new land and land order. In the course of this ordinance, Count Ormondes land property in Ireland was confiscated and he was excluded from the amnesty granted to those loyal to the king who had surrendered by then. Count Ormonde, who was now constantly short of money, sought intensive contact with Charles II and his mother in Paris and also followed them to Aix and Cologne when they were expelled from Paris as a result of the peace treaty between Cardinal Mazarin and Cromwell in 1655.

In 1658 he went on a secret mission to England to get reliable information about whether a rebellion had a chance. He then met the king again in Fuenterrabia in 1659 and also met Mazarin for a conversation. He was also implicated in subsequent secret actions to reinstate the English king.

Career during the restoration

Ormonde's adversary, the Duke of Buckingham

When Charles returned to England as king, Ormonde was appointed treasurer and navy officer . He was awarded the following offices and titles over the next few years:

With the return of the king he got his lands back in Ireland. He also received other goods in recognition of his faithful service in the royal service. The following year the Irish Parliament gave him £ 30,000. Despite these regained values, he had a loss of £ 868,000. On November 4, 1661 he was again transferred to the office of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and he began to order the settlement of Ireland. The main problem was the laws prohibiting the importation of Irish cattle into England. This was a major blow to the Irish economy. Ormonde thereupon ordered no more Scottish consumer goods to enter the country and began to establish trade relations with other countries himself. He was extremely supportive of Irish business and education and promoted the Irish Medical College. Ormonde had always been a contentious personality and was highly motivated in the fulfillment of his duties. He was a faithful and loyal subject to the king, although his favor at court waned. More and more often he was blamed when something went wrong at the king's court. The king's confidante, the Duke of Buckingham , played a major role in reducing Ormond's influence at court. In particular, his supposedly irresponsible way of governing Ireland in times of crisis has repeatedly been the cause of criticism. He is said to have ordered that soldiers were billeted with civilians and ruled under martial law. Buckingham pressed for charges against him. In March 1669, Ormonde was withdrawn from the government of Ireland and also from the Irish Affairs Committee. He did not complain, but demanded that his sons and other loyal followers be allowed to remain in their positions. He then devoted himself mainly to his role as Chancellor of Oxford University , to which he was elected on August 4, 1669.

On December 6, 1670, a sensational assassination attempt was carried out on Ormonde. A crook and adventurer named Thomas Blood , who had already unsuccessfully attempted an attack on Dublin Castle and will fail in an attempt to steal the royal crown from the Tower in 1671 , ambushed Ormonde with some accomplices when he was in St. James Street Drove along London. They pulled him out of his carriage, put him on a horse and fled towards Piccadilly , only to hang him up in Tyburn . Ormonde managed to overpower the bandit who was holding him on horseback and flee. It was believed that the raid was orchestrated by Lord Buckingham. He was also publicly accused of the crime by Ormondes son, Lord Ossory, in the presence of the king. Lord Ossory threatened Buckingham with death if any violence was done to his father. However, the king doubted the allegations, which was also made clear by the fact that he amnestied Thomas Blood and thus clearly strengthened Buckingham's side.

In 1671, Ormonde successfully rebelled against Richard Talbot's attempt to reverse land reform in Ireland. In 1673 he visited Ireland again and stayed there until 1675. Then he was called to the King to advise him on matters with Parliament. Two years later, Ormonde had regained the king's favor and was reinstated in his former office as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Upon arriving in Ireland, he began to put the finances and army on a solid footing. When riots broke out after the so-called " Papist Conspiracy " (Popish Plot), he defended himself in front of the country's Catholic population. This partisanship exposed him to severe political hostility, particularly from Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury ; the support of his son Lord Ossory saved Ormonde from the consequences. On November 9, 1682 he was given the ducal title of Duke of Ormonde and in June 1684 he returned to Ireland, but was called back to London in October because intrigues were again spun against him at court. As Ormonde was about to take up his position as Lord Lieutenant in Ireland, King Charles II died and one of Ormonde's last official acts was to proclaim the new King James II in Dublin. In addition to his government activities, Ormonde was Chancellor of Trinity College in Dublin between 1645 and 1688, although he was only able to do this job from exile for 15 years at the beginning.

Ormonde then retired to Cornbury , Oxfordshire , where he lived in a house owned by Lord Clarendon . The retirement lasted only until 1687, when he openly announced resistance to the king in order to prevent his religious influence on the elite Charterhouse School . He also criticized the king on the question of excessive luxury. Despite this criticism, the king did not allow himself to be carried away to the end, to withdraw Ormonde of his favor.

Ormonde died on July 21, 1688 in Kingston Lacy, Dorset. With him, one of the most influential personalities of his time died. He was immortalized in Ireland in 1682 in a poem published on his return to the country:

A Man of Plato's grand nobility,
An inbred greatness, innate honesty;
A Man not form'd of accidents, and whom
Misfortune might oppress, not overcome
Who weighs himself not by opinion
But conscience of a noble action.

Ormonde was buried in Westminster Abbey on August 1, 1688 .

family

James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde, around 1680/1685

With his wife Elisabeth Preston, 2nd Lady Dingwall, he had seven children, three of whom survived childhood:

The eldest son, Thomas Butler, Earl of Ossory, died before his father, so that James Butler's grandson succeeded him as the 2nd Duke of Ormonde (1665-1745). The other two sons, Richard became Earl of Arran and John became Earl of Gowran , both died without male heirs. Therefore, the line of Ormondes died out with Charles Butler, 3rd Duke of Ormonde .

James Butler as a literary figure

Friedrich Halms novella Die Freundinnen (1860) contains an episode from the life of James Butler, which is based on a source communicated by Thomas Carte.

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  • Thomas Carte, Life of the Duke of Ormonde (3 volumes., 1735–1736; reissued, in 6 volumes., Oxford, 1851)
  • Thomas Carte, Collection of Original Letters, found in the estate of the Duke of Ormonde (1739)
  • Carte manuscripts in the Bodleian Library in Oxford
  • Sir Robert Southwell, "Life of Ormonde," reprinted in History of the Irish Parliament, by Lord Mountmorres (i 792), vol. 1.
  • Correspondence between Archbishop Williams and the Marquess of Ormonde, edited by BH Beckham (Reprinted in Archaeologia Cambrensis, 1869)
  • John Milton, Observations on the Articles of Peace between James, Earl of Ormonde, and the Irish-Rebels
  • Hist. MSS. Comm. Reps. ii.-iv. and vi.-x., esp. Rep. Viii., Appendix, p. 499, and Rep. Xiv. App .: pt. Vii.
  • Manuscripts of the Marquis of Ormonde, together with new series; Notes and Queries, vi. ser. v., pp. 343 ~ ~ al1
  • Gardiner's History of the Civil War
  • Calendar of Slate Papers (Domestic) and Irish, 1633–1662, with introductions
  • Biographia Britannica (Kippis)
  • Scottish Hist. Soc. Publications: Letters and Documents1650, edited by SR Gardiner, volume. xvii. (1894)
  • This article contains translated text from Encyclopædia Britannica 11th Edition, which is in the public domain.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Elizabeth Butler. Retrieved July 31, 2010 .
predecessor Office successor
New title created Duke of Ormonde
(Peerage of Ireland)
1661-1688 		James Butler
New title created Duke of Ormonde
(Peerage of England)
1682–1688 		James Butler
New title created Marquess of Ormonde
1642-1688 		James Butler
Walter Butler Earl of Ormonde
1634-1688 		James Butler
Walter Butler Earl of Ossory
1634-1662 		Thomas Butler
(by writ of acceleration )
New title created Earl of Brecknock
1660-1688 		James Butler
Robert Sidney Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
1643-1646 		Philip Sidney
Philip Sidney Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
1648–1649 		Oliver Cromwell
James Stewart Lord Steward
1660-1688 		William Cavendish
personal data
SURNAME Butler, James, 1st Duke of Ormonde
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ormonde, James Butler, 1st Duke of
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Anglo-Irish statesman and military leader
DATE OF BIRTH October 19, 1610
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH July 21, 1688
Place of death Kingston Lacy , Dorset