James Butler, 1st Earl of Ormond (17 October 13046 January 1338), was a noble in the
Peerage of Ireland
The Peerage of Ireland consists of those titles of nobility created by the English monarchs in their capacity as Lord or King of Ireland, or later by monarchs of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It is one of the five divisi ...
. He was born in Arklow, Wicklow, Ireland and died in Gowran, Kilkenny, Ireland.
Family
James Butler was the son of
Edmund Butler, Earl of Carrick
Edmund Butler (died 1321), 6th Chief Butler of Ireland and nominally Earl of Carrick, was an Irish magnate who served as Justiciar of Ireland during the difficult times of the Scottish invasion from 1315 to 1318 and the great famine of 1316 to 1 ...
, (126813 September 1321), Justiciar of Ireland and
Joan FitzGerald, Countess of Carrick
Joan Butler (née FitzGerald), Countess of Carrick (1281 – 2 May 1320) was an Irish noblewoman, and the wife of Edmund Butler, Earl of Carrick, Justiciar of Ireland (1268 – 13 September 1321). She was the mother of James Butler, 1st Earl of ...
. His paternal grandparents were
Theobald le Botiller
Theobald le Botiller, also known as Theobald Butler, 2nd Baron Butler (January 1200 – 19 July 1230) was the son of Theobald Walter, 1st Baron Butler and Maud le Vavasour. He had livery of his lands on 18 July 1222.
Marriage and Childre ...
(1242–1285), (the son of
Theobald le Botiller
Theobald le Botiller, also known as Theobald Butler, 2nd Baron Butler (January 1200 – 19 July 1230) was the son of Theobald Walter, 1st Baron Butler and Maud le Vavasour. He had livery of his lands on 18 July 1222.
Marriage and Childre ...
and
Margery de Burgh
Margery de Burgh (; ), was a Norman-Irish noblewoman and wife of Theobald Butler, 3rd Chief Butler of Ireland.
Family and lineage
Margery de Burgh was born in Galway, Ireland, the eldest daughter of Richard Mor de Burgh, Lord of Connacht and ...
) and Joan FitzJohn (FitzGeffrey) (d. 4 April 1303), who was the daughter of
John FitzGeoffrey, Lord of
Shere
Shere is a village in the Guildford district of Surrey, England east south-east of Guildford and west of Dorking, centrally bypassed by the A25. It is a small still partly agricultural village chiefly set in the wooded 'Vale of Holmesdale' b ...
, Justiciar of Ireland and Isabel Bigod.
His maternal grandfather was
John FitzThomas FitzGerald, 1st Earl of Kildare
John FitzThomas (c. 1250 – d. 10 September 1316) was an Anglo-Norman in the Peerage of Ireland, as 4th Lord of Offaly from 1287 and subsequently as 1st Earl of Kildare from 1316.
Life
He was the eldest son of Thomas FitzMaurice (son of Maur ...
, who married Blanche de la Roche.
Titles
Upon his father's death in 1321, the only hereditary title to which James succeeded was that of Chief Butler of Ireland. As the 7th Chief Butler, he inherited the title from his ancestor
Theobald Fitzwalter, or Theobald Butler, whose successors adopted the surname
Butler
A butler is a person who works in a house serving and is a domestic worker in a large household. In great houses, the household is sometimes divided into departments with the butler in charge of the dining room, wine cellar, and pantry. Some a ...
. The hereditary office of butler of Ireland was one of particular fealty to the Crown, whereby Theobald and his successors were to attend the Kings of England at their coronation.
[Otway-Ruthven, A. J. ''A History of Medieval Ireland'' New York: Barnes & Noble 1993 p. 67] A gap of seven years followed before James was rewarded for his especial loyalty with an earldom in his own right. His benefactor, the young
King Edward III
Edward III (13 November 1312 – 21 June 1377), also known as Edward of Windsor before his accession, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from January 1327 until his death in 1377. He is noted for his military success and for restoring ro ...
, created him the first
Earl of Ormond by patent dated 2 November 1328, at Salisbury—the king was holding a Parliament there—with the creation fee of £10 a year. Seven days later by patent dated at Wallingford, in consideration of his services and the better to enable him to support the honour, the king gave James the regalities, liberties, knights fees, and other royal privileges of the county of Tipperary, and the rights of a palatine in that county for life.
At about the same time, in September 1328, the king created
Roger Mortimer the 1st
Earl of March
Earl of March is a title that has been created several times in the Peerage of Scotland and the Peerage of England. The title derived from the "marches" or borderlands between England and either Wales (Welsh Marches) or Scotland (Scottish Marche ...
, who would soon
arouse the anger of those most loyal to the Crown.
In 1336, James founded the friary of Carrick-Begg (a townland on the
River Suir
The River Suir ( ; ga, an tSiúr or ''Abhainn na Siúire'' ) is a river in Ireland that flows into the Atlantic Ocean through Waterford after a distance of .
The catchment area of the Suir is 3,610 km2. opposite
Carrick-on-Suir
Carrick-on-Suir () is a town in County Tipperary, Ireland. It lies on both banks of the River Suir. The part on the north bank of the Suir lies in the civil parish of "Carrick", in the historical barony of Iffa and Offa East. The part on the so ...
) for
Franciscan
The Franciscans are a group of related Mendicant orders, mendicant Christianity, Christian Catholic religious order, religious orders within the Catholic Church. Founded in 1209 by Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi, these orders include t ...
Friars. On 3 June of that year, he gave the friars his castle and estate of Carrick, which they occupied on the feast day of SS. Peter and Paul (29 June).
Marriage and children
In 1327, James was offered a marriage arrangement that would give him the castle and manor of Kilpec, Hereford, for life. He married
Eleanor de Bohun
Eleanor de Bohun ( – 3 October 1399) was the elder daughter and co-heiress (with her sister, Mary de Bohun), of Humphrey de Bohun, 7th Earl of Hereford (1341–1373) and Joan Fitzalan, a daughter of Richard FitzAlan, 10th Earl of Arundel a ...
(1304–1363), daughter of the
4th Earl of Hereford, and
Princess Elizabeth, daughter of King
Edward I of England
Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he ruled the duchies of Aquitaine and Gascony as a vassa ...
; they had six children together, four of whom survived infancy:
* Anne Butler (1328–1329)
* Eleanor Butler (?)
* John Butler (born and died an infant in 1330)
* Elizabeth Butler (1330–1392), married (after 20 July 1359), Gerald FitzGerald, Earl of Desmond, son of Maurice FitzThomas, Earl of Desmond and Aveline FitzMorice, and had issue.
*
James Butler, 2nd Earl of Ormond (4 October 133118 October 1382), married
Elizabeth Darcy, daughter of
John Darcy, 1st Baron Darcy de Knayth
John D'arcy, 1st Baron D'arcy de Knayth (c. 1290 – 30 May 1347) was an English peer. He was created 1st Baron Darcy in 1317."Lady D'arcy de Knayth" (2008, March 12). ''The Telegraph''. Retrieved October 18, 2014 from https://www.telegraph.co ...
,
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 ...
, and Joan de Burgh, and had issue. He was born at Kilkenny and given in ward on 1 September 1344his father, James Butler, had died in 1338to Maurice, Earl of Desmond, for the fine of 2,306 marks; and afterwards to Sir John Darcy, who married him to his daughter Elizabeth. James Butler the son was called the Noble Earl on account of his descent from the Royal Family through his mother.
[Lodge, John ''The Peerage of Ireland or, A Genealogical History Of The Present Nobility Of That Kingdom'', 1789, Vol IV, p 8.]
* Pernel Butler (133223 April 1368), married
Gilbert Talbot, 3rd Baron Talbot
Gilbert Talbot, 3rd Baron Talbot (c. 1332–1387) was an English nobleman and soldier.
Family
Talbot was the son and heir of Richard Talbot, 2nd Baron Talbot and his wife Elizabeth de Comyn. Burke, Bernard"A Genealogical History of the Dorman ...
, son of
Richard Talbot, 2nd Baron Talbot
Richard Talbot, 2nd Baron Talbot (c. 1306 – 23 October 1356) was an English nobleman and soldier. As the husband of the heiress Elizabeth de Comyn, he played a role in the Second War of Scottish Independence.
Family
Talbot was the son and ...
and
Elizabeth de Comyn
Elizabeth de Comyn (1 November 1299 – 20 November 1372) was a medieval noblewoman and heiress, notable for being kidnapped by the Despenser family towards the end of the reign of King Edward II.
Background
Elizabeth was born to John III Co ...
, and had issue. They were ancestors to
Lady Maud Parr, mother of queen consort
Catherine Parr
Catherine Parr (sometimes alternatively spelled Katherine, Katheryn, Kateryn, or Katharine; 1512 – 5 September 1548) was Queen of England and Ireland as the last of the six wives of King Henry VIII from their marriage on 12 July 1543 until ...
.
James's successors held the title
Earl of Ormond, which was later merged with the higher title of
Duke of Ormonde
The peerage title Earl of Ormond and the related titles Duke of Ormonde and Marquess of Ormonde have a long and complex history. An earldom of Ormond has been created three times in the Peerage of Ireland.
History of Ormonde titles
The earldo ...
; they held
palatine
A palatine or palatinus (in Latin; plural ''palatini''; cf. derivative spellings below) is a high-level official attached to imperial or royal courts in Europe since Roman times. rights in
County Tipperary
County Tipperary ( ga, Contae Thiobraid Árann) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. The county is named after the town of Tipperary, and was established in the early 13th century, shortly after th ...
until the
County Palatine of Tipperary Act 1715
The County Palatine of Tipperary Act 1715 is an Act of the Parliament of Ireland (2 Geo 1 c. 8). This Act enabled the purchase by the crown of the Palatine Rights in County Tipperary given to the Earls of Ormond, later Dukes of Ormonde, over t ...
.
See also
*
Barony of Iffa and Offa East
*
Butler dynasty
Butler ( ga, de Buitléir) is the name of a noble family whose members were, for several centuries, prominent in the administration of the Lordship of Ireland and the Kingdom of Ireland. They rose to their highest prominence as Dukes of Ormonde. ...
References
Further reading
* Burke, Messrs., John and John Bernard, ''The Royal Families of England, Scotland, and Wales, with Their Descendants'' &c., London, vol.2, 1851, pedigree ccvii.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ormond, James Butler, 1st Earl of
James
James is a common English language surname and given name:
*James (name), the typically masculine first name James
* James (surname), various people with the last name James
James or James City may also refer to:
People
* King James (disambiguat ...
1337 deaths
Normans in Ireland
14th-century Irish politicians
Year of birth uncertain
Earls of Ormond (Ireland)
1304 births