Anne Butler, Countess of Ormond (née Welles; 1360 – 13 November 1397), was the first wife of Irish noble James Butler, 3rd Earl of Ormond, and the mother of James Butler, 4th Earl of Ormond. She was the first countess of Ormond to live at

Kilkenny Castle Kilkenny Castle ( ga, Caisleán Chill Chainnigh, IPA: �kaʃlʲaːnˠˈçiːl̪ʲˈxan̪ʲiː is a castle in Kilkenny, Ireland built in 1195 to control a fording-point of the River Nore and the junction of several routeways. It was a symbol o ...

, Ireland. According to Frederick Tupper, Professor of English at the

University of Vermont The University of Vermont (UVM), officially the University of Vermont and State Agricultural College, is a public land-grant research university in Burlington, Vermont. It was founded in 1791 and is among the oldest universities in the United ...

, she was commemorated as "Anelida, Queen of Armenia" in Geoffrey Chaucer's poem ''

Anelida and Arcite ''Anelida and Arcite'' is a 357-line English poem by Geoffrey Chaucer. It tells the story of Anelida, queen of Armenia and her wooing by false Arcite from Thebes, Greece. Although relatively short, it is a poem with a complex structure, with a ...

''.

Family and lineage

Anne Welles was born in

Grainsby Grainsby is a hamlet and civil parish in the East Lindsey Non-metropolitan district, district of Lincolnshire, England. It is situated south from Grimsby, and just to the west from the A16 road. The nearest village is North Thoresby, to the so ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-we ...

, England in 1360, the daughter of John de Welles, 4th

Baron Welles The title of Baron Welles has been created three times. Its first creation was for Adam de Welles on 6 May 1299 in the Peerage of England by writ of summons. This creation was extinguished by attainder in 1469. The title was created a second t ...

(23 August 1334 – 11 October 1361) and Maud de Ros (died 9 December 1388). She had an elder brother John de Welles, 5th Baron Welles (born 20 April 1352), who married Eleanor de Mowbray, by whom he had issue. She had a sister Margery de Welles, who married firstly, John de Huntingfield, 1st

Baron Huntingfield Baron Huntingfield is a title that has been created three times, twice in the Peerage of England and once in the Peerage of Ireland. The first two creations were by writ, but little more is known about them, except that John de Huntingfield, who was ...

and secondly,

Stephen Scrope, 2nd Baron Scrope of Masham Stephen Scrope, 2nd Baron Scrope of Masham and Upsale (1345–1406) was the second surviving son of Henry Scrope, 1st Baron Scrope of Masham and his second wife Joan. Cokayne, G.E., ''The Complete Peerage of England and Wales (Vol. VII, London, 18 ...

. Her paternal grandparents were Sir Adam de Welles, 3rd Baron Welles and Margaret Bardolf, and her maternal grandparents were William de Ros, 2nd Baron de Ros and Margery Badlesmere, the eldest daughter of

Bartholomew de Badlesmere, 1st Baron Badlesmere Bartholomew de Badlesmere, 1st Baron Badlesmere (18 August 127514 April 1322) was an English soldier, diplomat, member of parliament, landowner and nobleman. He was the son and heir of Sir Gunselm de Badlesmere (died ca. 1301) and Joan FitzBe ...

and

Margaret de Clare Margaret de Clare, Countess of Gloucester, Countess of Cornwall (12 October 1293 – 9 April 1342) was an English noblewoman, heiress, and the second-eldest of the three daughters of Gilbert de Clare, 6th Earl of Hertford and his wife Joan of ...

Marriage

Prior to 17 June 1386, Anne Welles married James Butler, 3rd Earl of Ormond (died 6 September 1405), son of James Butler, 2nd Earl of Ormond and Elizabeth Darcy. He twice served as

Lord Justice of Ireland The Lords Justices (more formally the Lords Justices General and General Governors of Ireland) were deputies who acted collectively in the absence of the chief governor of Ireland (latterly the Lord Lieutenant) as head of the executive branch o ...

. Upon her marriage to the earl, she assumed the title Countess of Ormond. In September 1391, James purchased

from Hugh le Despenser, and the Ormonds made this magnificent stone fortification set in a park their chief residence with the earl using it as a base from which he ruled over the district. Previously they lived at

Gowran Castle Gowran Castle is located in the centre of Gowran, County Kilkenny, Ireland. The castle is a manor house and was fully restored between 2013 and 2014. Early years The first Gowran Castle was built in 1385 by James Butler, 3rd Earl of Ormond, cl ...

. James and Anne hosted

King Richard II Richard II (6 January 1367 – ), also known as Richard of Bordeaux, was King of England from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399. He was the son of Edward the Black Prince, Prince of Wales, and Joan, Countess of Kent. Richard's father d ...

when he visited Kilkenny Castle in 1395. King Richard showed his favour to the earl and countess by acting as godfather to their second son, named Richard in honour of the king.Kilkenny Castle: The Marble Fireplace
; retrieved 25 March 2012. It was suggested by Frederick Tupper, Professor of English at the University of Vermont, that Anne was commemorated as "Anelida, Queen of Armenia", in Geoffrey Chaucer's poem ''

'' with "Arcite" having been her husband.De Weever, Jacqueline (1995). ''Chaucer Name Dictionary: A Guide to the Astrological, Biblical, Historical, Literary, and Mythological Names in the Works of Geoffrey Chaucer''. New York: Routledge. p. 25

Issue

James and Anne had three children: * James Butler, 4th Earl of Ormond (1392 – 22 August 1452), known as ''The White Earl''. He married firstly, Joan de Beauchamp, by whom he had five children, including James Butler, 5th Earl of Ormond, John Butler, 6th Earl of Ormond, and

Thomas Butler, 7th Earl of Ormond Thomas Butler, 7th Earl of Ormond PC (1426 – 3 August 1515) was the youngest son of James Butler, 4th Earl of Ormond. He was attainted, but restored by Henry VII's first Parliament in November 1485, and the statutes made at Westminster, by ...

. Thomas was the great-grandfather of queen consort

Anne Boleyn Anne Boleyn (; 1501 or 1507 – 19 May 1536) was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536, as the second wife of King Henry VIII. The circumstances of her marriage and of her execution by beheading for treason and other charges made her a key ...

.Richardson, Everingham. pp.162–165 He married secondly, Joan FitzGerald. * Anne Butler, married John Wogan, by whom she had issue. * Sir Richard Butler, of Poulstown, Kilkenny (born 1395), married Catherine O'Reilly, daughter of Gildas O'Reilly, Lord of East Breffny, by whom he had issue.

Death

On 26 June 1397, Anne issued a lease to Sir John Drayton, of the manor of Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, and rents and appurtenances of the towns of Aylesbury and Burton. Anne Welles died on 13 November 1397, around the age of 37.''Collectanea Top. et Gen.1'' (1834), pp. 280–81 The Earl of Ormond married secondly, Katherine FitzGerald of Desmond, by whom he had four children. The Earl had an illegitimate son,

Thomas Le Boteller Thomas Le Boteller, or Thomas Butler, nicknamed Thomas ''Bacach'' i.e. ''Thomas the Lame'' (before 1386 – 1420), was the illegitimate son of the 3rd Earl of Ormond, and a leading political figure in early fifteenth-century Ireland. He held the o ...

, Prior of

Kilmainham Kilmainham (, meaning " St Maighneann's church") is a south inner suburb of Dublin, Ireland, south of the River Liffey and west of the city centre. It is in the city's Dublin 8 postal district. The area was once known as Kilmanum. History In t ...

by an unknown mistress.Richardson, Douglas, Everingham, Kimball G. (2005). ''Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families''. Baltimore:Genealogical Publishing Company, Inc. p. 162 He is often incorrectly listed as a child of Anne Welles.

References

Sources

* Charles Cawley, ''Medieval Lands'', "Earls of Ulster" * Ormonde Pedigree (''

Burke's Peerage Burke's Peerage Limited is a British genealogical publisher founded in 1826, when the Irish genealogist John Burke began releasing books devoted to the ancestry and heraldry of the peerage, baronetage, knightage and landed gentry of Great ...

Baronetage and Knightage'', 103rd edition, 1962 pp. 1871–1874) {{DEFAULTSORT:Ormond, Anne Welles, Countess of 1360 births 1397 deaths Irish countesses Normans in Ireland Date of birth unknown Daughters of barons People from County Kilkenny People from East Lindsey District 14th-century English people Place of death missing Anglo-Norman women 14th-century Irish women 14th-century Irish people 14th-century English women